CO rotational line emission from a dense knot in Cassiopeia A: Evidence for active post-reverse-shock chemistry
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2013

We report a Herschel detection of high-J rotational CO lines from a dense knot in the supernova remnant Cas A. Based on a combined analysis of these rotational lines and previously observed ro-vibrational CO lines, we find the gas to be warm (two components at ~400 and 2000 K) and dense (1e6−7 cm-3), with a CO column density of ~5e17 cm-2. This, along with the broad line widths (~400 km/s), suggests that the CO emission originates in the post-shock region of the reverse shock. As the passage of the reverse shock dissociates any existing molecules, the CO has most likely reformed in the past several years in the post-shock gas. The CO cooling time is similar to the CO formation time, therefore we discuss possible heating sources (UV photons from the shock front, X-rays, electron conduction) that may maintain the high column density of warm CO.

submillimeter: ISM

ISM: supernova remnants

ISM: individual objects: Cassiopeia A

Författare

Sofia Wallström

Chalmers, Rymd- och geovetenskap, Radioastronomi och astrofysik

C. Biscaro

Universität Basel

F. Salgado

Universiteit Leiden

John H Black

Chalmers, Rymd- och geovetenskap, Radioastronomi och astrofysik

I.M. Cherchneff

Universität Basel

Sebastien Muller

Chalmers, Rymd- och geovetenskap, Onsala rymdobservatorium

O. Berné

Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)

Université de Toulouse

J. Rho

NASA Ames Research Center

SETI Institute

Aggm Tielens

Universiteit Leiden

Astronomy and Astrophysics

0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)

Vol. 558 L2 L2

Ämneskategorier

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

Fundament

Grundläggande vetenskaper

Infrastruktur

Onsala rymdobservatorium

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/201322576

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2018-09-07