A study of interstellar carbonyl sulfide.
Abstract
The OCS molecule has been studied in 24 interstellar and circumstellar molecular clouds and detected in a total of 10 sources and seven different transitions. Analysis of the data using hydrogen densities derived from a study of CS and assuming that the OCS lines are optically thin, yields a mean column density of 3 x 10 to the 14th per sq cm in 10 interstellar clouds, while the average fractional abundance of N(OCS)/N(H2) = 1.6 x 10 to the -9th. The results of maps and analyses of multiple transitions in several sources suggest that the regions responsible for the OCS emission are only marginally resolved with a beamsize of about 2 arcmin.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- April 1981
- DOI:
- 10.1086/158824
- Bibcode:
- 1981ApJ...245..482G
- Keywords:
-
- Abundance;
- Carbonyl Compounds;
- Interstellar Gas;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Stellar Envelopes;
- Sulfides;
- Electron Transitions;
- Gas Density;
- Isotopes;
- Line Spectra;
- Microwave Spectra;
- Molecular Excitation;
- Molecular Spectra;
- Spectrum Analysis;
- Astrophysics