High Spectral Resolution Observations toward Orion BN at 6 μm: No Evidence for Hot Water
Journal article, 2018

The Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) object in Orion has a large proper motion and radial velocity with respect to the gas and other stars in the region where it is presumed to have formed. Multiple dynamical interaction scenarios have been proposed to explain this motion. In one case BN is thought to have interacted with stars in the Trapezium cluster, while in another it is thought to have interacted with source I while deeply embedded in molecular gas. If there is dense gas that has been retained in close proximity to BN, it may be evidence that the latter scenario is favored. We observed BN at high spectral resolution in three windows near 6 mu m using the Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph on board the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy targeting the nu(2) vibrational band of H2O. Absorption from only three transitions of H2O is detected, and through kinematic analysis is associated with cool, dense foreground gas, not BN itself. We find no evidence for H2O absorption or emission at the systemic velocity of BN.

ISM: molecules

Author

Nick Indriolo

Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Jonathan Tan

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

A. C. A. Boogert

University of Hawaii

C. N. DeWitt

NASA Ames Research Center

E. J. Montiel

University of California

D. A. Neufeld

Johns Hopkins University

M. J. Richter

University of California

Astrophysical Journal Letters

2041-8205 (ISSN) 2041-8213 (eISSN)

Vol. 865 2 L18

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Physics Topics

DOI

10.3847/2041-8213/aae1ff

More information

Latest update

5/7/2019 9