Observation of interstellar ammonia ice
Abstract
An absorption band probably due to solid ammonia on interstellar grains has been detected in the infrared spectrum at 2.97 microns of the Becklin-Neugebauer object and probably in NGC 2264-IR. An ammonia-water amorphous ice mixture can explain the structure of the new band and of the 3.07 microns interstellar absorption. Laboratory data suggest that a long wavelength wind extending to 3.5 microns in interstellar dust spectra may be absorption by NH3-H2O complexes in the ices. In the molecular cloud obscuring the BN object, about 20 times as much NH3 is frozen in grains as exists in the gas phase, suggesting the gas-grain interactions may be important in the ammonia chemistry of molecular clouds. Arguments are given that interstellar features at 6.0 and 6.8 microns are also ammonia-related absorptions.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- September 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1086/160241
- Bibcode:
- 1982ApJ...260..141K
- Keywords:
-
- Ammonia;
- Infrared Spectra;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Orion Nebula;
- Solidified Gases;
- Ice;
- Infrared Absorption;
- Infrared Stars;
- Spectral Bands;
- Astrophysics