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Detection of the J = 6 - 5 transition of carbon monoxide

DOI

35

Citations

0

References

1981

Year

P. F. Goldsmith, N. R. Erickson, H. R. Fetterman, B. J. Clifton, D. D. Peck, P. E. Tannenwald, Gerhard A. Koepf, D. Bühl, N. McAvoy
The Astrophysical Journal

Abstract

The J = 6 - 5 rotational transition of carbon monoxide has been detected in emission from the KL 'plateau source' in the Orion molecular cloud. The corrected peak antenna temperature is 100 K, and the FWHM line width is 26 km/sec. These observations were carried out using the 3 m telescope of the NASA IRTF (Infrared Telescope Facility) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and constitute the first astronomical data obtained at submillimeter wavelengths with a heterodyne system using a laser local oscillator. The data support the idea that the high-velocity dispersion CO in Orion is optically thin and set a lower limit to its temperature of approximately 180 K.