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We report new interferometric images of cyclopropenylidene, c-C3H2, toward the young protocluster OMC-2 FIR 4. The observations were performed at 82 and 85 GHz with the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) as part of the project Seeds Of Life In Space (SOLIS). In addition, IRAM-30 m data observations were used to investigate the physical structure of OMC-2 FIR 4. We find that the c-C3H2 gas emits from the same region where previous SOLIS observations showed bright HC5N emission. From a non-LTE analysis of the IRAM-30 m data, the c-C3H2 gas has an average temperature of ∼40 K, a H2 density of ∼3 × 105 cm−3, and a c-C3H2 abundance relative to H2 of (7 ± 1) × 10−12. In addition, the NOEMA observations provide no sign of significant c-C3H2 excitation temperature gradients across the region (about 3–4 beams), with Tex in the range 8 ± 3 up to 16 ± 7 K. We thus infer that our observations are inconsistent with a physical interaction of the OMC-2 FIR 4 envelope with the outflow arising from OMC-2 FIR 3, as claimed by previous studies. The comparison of the measured c-C3H2 abundance with the predictions from an astrochemical PDR model indicates that OMC-2 FIR 4 is irradiated by an FUV field ∼1000 times larger than the interstellar one, and by a flux of ionizing particles ∼4000 times larger than the canonical value of 1 × 10−17 s−1 from the Galaxy cosmic rays, which is consistent with our previous HC5N observations. This provides an important and independent confirmation of other studies that one, or more, source inside the OMC-2 FIR 4 region emits energetic (≥10 MeV) particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex organic molecules have been observed for decades in the interstellar medium. Some of them might be considered as small bricks of the macromolecules at the base of terrestrial life. It is hence particularly important to understand organic chemistry in Solar-like star-forming regions. In this article, we present a new observational project: Seeds Of Life In Space (SOLIS). This is a Large Project using the IRAM-NOEMA interferometer, and its scope is to image the emission of several crucial organic molecules in a sample of Solar-like star-forming regions in different evolutionary stages and environments. Here we report the first SOLIS results, obtained from analyzing the spectra of different regions of the Class 0 source NGC 1333-IRAS4A, the protocluster OMC-2 FIR4, and the shock site L1157-B1. The different regions were identified based on the images of formamide (NH2CHO) and cyanodiacetylene (HC5N) lines. We discuss the observed large diversity in the molecular and organic content, both on large (3000–10,000 au) and relatively small (300–1000 au) scales. Finally, we derive upper limits to the methoxy fractional abundance in the three observed regions of the same order of magnitude of that measured in a few cold prestellar objects, namely –10−11 with respect to H2 molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]