Title: Hunting Complex Organic Molecules at the Onset of Star Formation in the Orion Cloud
Speaker: Dr. Shih-Ying Hsu (ASIAA)
Date: March 29 at 14:30
Location: R521, General Building II
Abstract:
The study of complex organic molecules (COMs) in star-forming regions is crucial for understanding the origins of life in the universe. This presentation shares findings from a COM survey within the "ALMA Survey of Orion PGCCs (ALMASOP)" project, focusing on prestellar cores and protostellar cores in the Orion molecular cloud complex. Among 56 protostellar cores, we have detected 11 of them harboring warm COM emission with 1.3 mm observations. To uncover the underlying physical properties and origin of COM emission, we applied spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling to our sample. The analysis establishes a correlation between the detectability of warm COMs and the mass of the warm envelope in the protostellar core, suggesting that warm COMs are a common feature of Class 0/I protostellar cores. Turning to prestellar cores, our 3 mm observations have shown the signature of methanol, the simplest COMs, in all of our targets. Imaging indicates that these COMs are primarily located in the outer layer of the cold and dense gas. Overall, our findings significantly contribute to our understanding of the chemical composition and physical processes during the early stages of star formation. Furthermore, they provide observational evidence supporting the prevalence of COMs at the onset of star-forming regions.
