NH3 in IRC plus 10216
Abstract
Ammonia was detected in the circumstellar envelope of IRC +10216 by means of three infrared absorption lines in the nu2 band around 950/cm. The lines are fully resolved at a resolution of 0.22 km/sec and indicate that most of the circumstellar gas is accelerated to expansion velocities around 14 km/sec within a few stellar radii. The NH3 profiles indicate a rotational temperature between 400 and 700 K, and H2 density between 10 to the 8th power/cu cm and 10 to the 10th power/cu cm, and NH3 column density of 10 to the 17th power/sq cm. The H2 density indicates that the mass of the circumstellar envelope within a 1 arcsec radius is approximately 0.1 solar masses.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978STIN...7911979B
- Keywords:
-
- Ammonia;
- Infrared Astronomy;
- Line Spectra;
- Spectrum Analysis;
- Stellar Envelopes;
- Stellar Spectra;
- Absorption Spectra;
- Astrophysics;
- Gas Density;
- Infrared Absorption;
- Molecular Spectroscopy;
- Telescopes;
- Astrophysics