Peering into the interior of a dark interstellar cloud with the APEX telescope
Friday, December 17, 2010 - 11:32
in Astronomy & Space
Rare molecular species like H2D+ and D2H+, built from the hydrogen atom H and its heavier isotope deuterium D have gained great attention as probes of cold and dense molecular cloud cores. Since deuterium in space is about 100000 times rarer than hydrogen, these molecules are very difficult to detect. Thanks to the conjunction of powerful instrumentation at APEX, the "Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment", and an optimal site over 5000 meters above sea level, a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn led by Bérengère Parise achieved to map the spatial distribution of the rare D2H+ species in a prestellar core in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud, a star-forming region at a distance of approx. 400 light years.