A search for pre-biotic molecules in hot cores

Journal article, 2007

Aims. Our aim is to better understand the complex chemistry of organic molecules in the interstellar medium, leading to the formation of pre-biotic molecules such as amino acids. Methods. We have performed a search for the pre-biotic molecules amino acetonitrile (H2N CH2 CN) and vinyl acetylene (C2H3 CCH) towards four northern hot core sources using the Onsala 20 m telescope. Results. We have determined upper limits to the column density of amino acetonitrile (1-4*10^13 cm^-2) and vinyl acetylene (2-7*10^14 cm^-2) in the observed sources. In addition, from the absence of other lines within the observed frequency band, we have further constrained the column density of oxiranecarbonitrile (c-C3H3 NO) and amino-ethanol (NH2 CH2 CH2 OH) in these sources.