Interstellar Chemistry

We are mapping 29 rotational transitions of 21 chemical and isotopic molecular species in the central Orion molecular ridge with Nyquist sampling using the new 15-element focal plane array receiver QUARRY on the FCRAO 14 m telescope. Our goal is to obtain complete, unbiased data sets for a study of the interrelated physics and chemistry in GMC cores.

We are mapping 29 rotational transitions of 21 chemical and isotopic molecular species in the central Orion molecular ridge with Nyquist sampling using the new 15-element focal plane array receiver QUARRY on the FCRAO 14 m telescope. Our goal is to obtain complete, unbiased data sets for a study of the interrelated physics and chemistry in GMC cores.

We present the results of a systematic survey of the chemical properties of two giant molecular cloud (GMC) cores in M17 and Cepheus A. In all, we have mapped the emission from 32 molecular transitions of 13 molecules and seven isotopic variants over a 4@ ] 5@ region in each core. Each map includes known sites of massive star formation, as well as the more extended quiescent material. In M17 most molecules have emission peaks away from the H II region/molecular cloud interface, while two species, and deviate from this structure with sharp maxima closer to this interface. In Cepheus HC 3 N CH 3 C 2 H, A the core is inÑuenced by a compact high-velocity molecular outÑow and a more extended low-velocity Ñow. The molecular emission distributions in this source are generally quite similar, with most molecules peaking near the center of the core to the east of the compact H II region HW 2. A few molecules, SO, H13CN, and C18O, have more extended emission. Only two molecules, CO and HCO`, appear CH 3 OH, to trace the high-and low-velocity outÑows ; all other species are tracing the quiescent core. We have used the results of previous studies of the density and temperature of the dense gas in the same cloud cores to derive accurate abundances relative to CO for several positions in each core. The principal result is that the chemical composition of all the cores we have surveyed (which include OMC-1 as well as M17 and Cepheus A) show remarkable similarity, both within a given core and among the cores. This suggests that the chemical processes are similar in quiescent GMC core material. In M17 the lack of variation of molecular abundances is remarkable because the radiation Ðeld and the gas temperature are known to vary appreciably throughout the surveyed region, suggesting that the bulk of the emission arises from gas that is well shielded from radiation.

We are mapping 29 rotational transitions of 21 chemical and isotopic molecular species in the central Orion molecular ridge with Nyquist sampling using the new 15-element focal plane array receiver QUARRY on the FCRAO 14 m telescope. Our goal is to obtain complete, unbiased data sets for a study of the interrelated physics and chemistry in GMC cores.

We present the results of a systematic survey of the chemical properties of two giant molecular cloud (GMC) cores in M17 and Cepheus A. In all, we have mapped the emission from 32 molecular transitions of 13 molecules and seven isotopic variants over a 4@ ] 5@ region in each core. Each map includes known sites of massive star formation, as well as the more extended quiescent material. In M17 most molecules have emission peaks away from the H II region/molecular cloud interface, while two species, and deviate from this structure with sharp maxima closer to this interface. In Cepheus HC 3 N CH 3 C 2 H, A the core is inÑuenced by a compact high-velocity molecular outÑow and a more extended low-velocity Ñow. The molecular emission distributions in this source are generally quite similar, with most molecules peaking near the center of the core to the east of the compact H II region HW 2. A few molecules, SO, H13CN, and C18O, have more extended emission. Only two molecules, CO and HCO`, appear CH 3 OH, to trace the high-and low-velocity outÑows ; all other species are tracing the quiescent core. We have used the results of previous studies of the density and temperature of the dense gas in the same cloud cores to derive accurate abundances relative to CO for several positions in each core. The principal result is that the chemical composition of all the cores we have surveyed (which include OMC-1 as well as M17 and Cepheus A) show remarkable similarity, both within a given core and among the cores. This suggests that the chemical processes are similar in quiescent GMC core material. In M17 the lack of variation of molecular abundances is remarkable because the radiation Ðeld and the gas temperature are known to vary appreciably throughout the surveyed region, suggesting that the bulk of the emission arises from gas that is well shielded from radiation.

20 h 46 m 20 h 44 m 20 h 42 m a l950 l-Contours of CO line emission integrated over the full line width are superposed upon the blue Palomar Sky Survey print. The region shown lies on the western side of the Cygnus Loop. All antenna temperatures have been corrected for beam efficiency and atmospheric extinction. The observed region lies within the dashed line.

Three-millimeter-wavelength spectra of a number of nearby galaxies have been obtained at the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) using a new, very broadband receiver. This instrument, which we call the Redshift Search Receiver, has an instantaneous bandwidth of 36 GHz and operates from 74 to 110.5 GHz. The receiver has been built at UMass/FCRAO to be part of the initial instrumentation for the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) and is intended primarily for determination of the redshift of distant, dust-obscured galaxies. It is being tested on the FCRAO 14 m by measuring the 3 mm spectra of a number of nearby galaxies. There are interesting differences in the chemistry of these galaxies.

The 3 mm wavelength spectra of 10 galaxies have been obtained at the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory using a new, very broadband receiver and spectrometer, called the Redshift Search Receiver (RSR). The RSR has an instantaneous bandwidth of 37 GHz covering frequencies from 74 to 111 GHz, and has a spectral resolution of 31 MHz (∼100 km s −1). During tests of the RSR on the FCRAO 14 m telescope the complete 3 mm spectra of the central regions of NGC 253, Maffei 2, NGC1068, IC 342, M82, NGC 3079, NGC 3690, NGC 4258, Arp 220 and NGC 6240 were obtained. Within the wavelength band covered by the RSR, 20 spectral lines from 14 different atomic and molecular species were detected. Based on simultaneous fits to the spectrum of each galaxy, a number of key molecular line ratios are derived. A simple model which assumes the emission arises from an ensemble of Milky Way-like Giant Nolecular Cloud cores can adequately fit the observed line ratios using molecular abundances based on Galactic molecular cloud cores. Variations seen in some line ratios, such as 13 CO/HCN and HCO + /HCN, can be explained if the mean density of the molecular gas varies from galaxy to galaxy. However, NGC 3690, NGC 4258 and NGC 6240 show very large HCO + /HCN ratios and require significant abundance enhancement of HCO + over HCN, possible due to the proximity to active galactic nucleus activity. Finally, the mass of dense molecular gas is estimated and we infer that 25-85% of the total molecular gas in the central regions of these galaxies must have densities greater than 10 4 cm −3 .

We review the nature of the widespread organic material present in the Milky Way Galaxy and in the Solar System. Attention is given to the links between these environments and between primitive Solar System objects and the early Earth, indicating the preservation of organic material as an interstellar cloud collapsed to form the Solar System and as the Earth accreted

Some characteristics of terrestrial music may be meaningful to extraterrestrial civilizations by virtue of the connection between acoustics and mathematics—both of which might be known by technologically advanced extraterrestrial intelligence. For example, a fundamental characteristic of terrestrial polyphonic music is found the number of tones used various scales, insofar as the number of tones represents a compromise between competing musical demands; the number of tones in a scale, however, also reflects some of the perceptual characteristics of the species developing that music. Thus, in the process of communicating something about the structure of terrestrial music through interstellar messages, additional information about human perceptual and cognitive processes can also be conveyed. This paper also discusses methods for sending signals that bear information through the form of the very frequencies in which the signals are transmitted. If the challenges of creating intelligible messages are greater than often thought, the advantage of reduced conventionality of encoding the message by using an iconic format of this sort may be of significant value. Such an approach would allow the incremental introduction of musical concepts, somewhat akin to the step-by-step tutorials in mathematics and logic that form the basis of Freudenthal’s Lincos.