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Issue A&A
Volume 500, Number 3, June IV 2009
Page(s) 1131 - 1136
Section Interstellar and circumstellar matter
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200911990
Published online 29 April 2009

A&A 500, 1131-1136 (2009)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/200911990

CO and H I observations of an enigmatic interstellar cloud

Y. Libert1, E. Gérard2, T. Le Bertre1, L. Matthews3, C. Thum4, and J. M. Winters4

1  LERMA, UMR 8112, Observatoire de Paris, 61 Av. de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
    e-mail: Thibaut.LeBertre@obspm.fr
2  GEPI, UMR 8111, Observatoire de Paris, 5 Place J. Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France
3  MIT Haystack Observatory, Off Route 40, Westford, MA 01886, USA
4  IRAM, 300 rue de la Piscine, 38406 St. Martin d'Hères, France

Received 6 March 2009 / Accepted 6 April 2009

Abstract
Context. An isolated H I cloud with peculiar properties has recently been discovered by Dedes et al. (2008, A&A, 491, L45) with the 300-m Arecibo telescope, and subsequently imaged with the VLA. It has an angular size of ~6', and the H I emission has a narrow line profile of width ~3 km s-1.
Aims. We explore the possibility that this cloud could be associated with a circumstellar envelope ejected by an evolved star.
Methods. Observations were made in the rotational lines of CO with the IRAM-30m telescope, on three positions in the cloud, and a total-power mapping in the H I line was obtained with the Nançay Radio Telescope.
Results. CO was not detected and seems too underabundant in this cloud to be a classical late-type star circumstellar envelope. On the other hand, the H I emission is compatible with the detached-shell model that we developed for representing the external environments of AGB stars.
Conclusions. We propose that this cloud could be a fossil circumstellar shell left over from a system that is now in a post-planetary-nebula phase. Nevertheless, we cannot rule out that it is a Galactic cloud or a member of the Local Group, although the narrow line profile would be atypical in both cases.


Key words: stars: AGB and post-AGB -- circumstellar matter -- ISM: clouds -- planetary nebulae -- radio lines: ISM



© ESO 2009


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