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6.7GHz CH3OH Absorption toward the N3 Galactic Center Point Source
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

6.7GHz CH3OH Absorption toward the N3 Galactic Center Point Source

Natalie O. Butterfield, Adam Ginsburg, Dominic A. Ludovici, Ashley Barnes, Riley Dunnagan, Cornelia C. Lang and Mark R. Morris
The Astrophysical journal, Vol.889(2), 174
02/01/2020
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab5af8
url
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab5af8View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

We present evidence of 6.7 GHz methanol (CH3OH) and 4.8 GHz formaldehyde (H2CO) absorption toward the Galactic Center (GC) point source "N3." Both absorption features are unresolved and spatially aligned with N3. The 6.7 GHz CH3OH contains a single-velocity component (centered at similar to 10 km s(-1)), while the 4.8 GHz H2CO shows two-velocity components (centered at similar to-3 and +8 km s(-1)). We find that the velocities of these absorption components are similar to that of emission lines from other molecules (e.g., SiO and HC3N) detected toward this compact source (-13 to +25 km s(-1); "N-3 cloud"). The detection of these absorption features is a firm indication that some of the molecular gas in the N3 molecular cloud is on the near side of the continuum source. Analysis of the CH3OH absorption kinematics shows a relatively large velocity dispersion (3.8 km s(-1)) for the size scale of this feature (<0.'' 1, <0.01 pc at the GC), when compared with other similarly sized GC clouds in the Larson line width-size relationship. Furthermore, this line width is closer to velocity dispersion measurements for size scales of 1.3 pc, which is roughly the width of the N3 cloud (25 ''; 1.0 pc). We argue that this relatively broad line width, over a small cross-sectional area, is due to turbulence through the depth of the cloud, where the cloud has a presumed line-of-sight thickness of similar to 1 pc.
Physical Sciences Astronomy & Astrophysics Science & Technology

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