Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013

Poster 1B073

COMPLEX ORGANIC PARENTS DURING STAR-FORMING INFALL

Drozdovskaya, Maria (Leiden Observatory)
Walsh, Catherine (Leiden Observatory)
Visser, Ruud (Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan)
Harsono, Daniel (Leiden Observatory)
van Dishoeck, Ewine (Leiden Observatory & Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik)

Abstract:
Stars are born upon the gravitation infall of clumps in molecular clouds. Complex organic compounds have been observed to accompany star formation and are also believed to be the simplest ingredients to life. Therefore understanding complex organics under star forming conditions is fundamentally interesting. This work models the formation and distribution of several potential parent species for complex organic compounds, such as formaldehyde (H2CO) and methanol (CH3OH), along trajectories of matter parcels, as they undergo infall from the cold outer envelope towards the hot core region and eventually onto the disk. The code from Visser et al. (2009, 2011) serves as the basis for this research. The gas-phase chemistry network has now been expanded with grain-surface reactions to form CH3OH and, ultimately, larger organics such as methyl formate (HCOOCH3) and dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3). The intention behind this work is to obtain information on complex organic parents in the star formation scenario by means of a physically and chemically robust model. The availability of complex organic compounds will vary depending on where the parent species are abundant, such as in the pre-stellar stage, hot-core, or only in the disk; and where they are available for a sufficient amount of time for the complexity enhancement. Such model-based conclusions can then be used in order to explain the observational data on complex organic compounds.

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