SOFIA/EXES OBSERVATIONS OF WATER ABSORPTION IN THE PROTOSTAR AFGL 2591 AT HIGH SPECTRAL RESOLUTION

Nick Indriolo, D. A. Neufeld, C. N. DeWitt, M. J. Richter, A. C. A. Boogert, G. M. Harper, D. T. Jaffe, K. R. Kulas, M. E. McKelvey, N. Ryde, W. Vacca
2015 Astrophysical Journal Letters  
We present high spectral resolution ( 3 km/s) observations of the nu_2 ro-vibrational band of H2O in the 6.086--6.135 micron range toward the massive protostar AFGL 2591 using the Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph (EXES) on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Ten absorption features are detected in total, with seven caused by transitions in the nu_2 band of H2O, two by transitions in the first vibrationally excited nu_2 band of H2O, and one by a transition in the nu_2
more » ... band of H218O. Among the detected transitions is the nu_2 1(1,1)--0(0,0) line which probes the lowest lying rotational level of para-H2O. The stronger transitions appear to be optically thick, but reach maximum absorption at a depth of about 25 the background source is only partially covered by the absorbing gas, or that the absorption arises within the 6 micron emitting photosphere. Assuming a covering fraction of 25 that best fit the observed absorption lines are N(H2O)=(1.3+-0.3)*10^19 cm^-2 and T=640+-80 K.
doi:10.1088/2041-8205/802/2/l14 fatcat:p6fjjwv7tjg43a3swkhwkl47ay