Issue |
A&A
Volume 449, Number 2, April II 2006
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 609 - 619 | |
Section | Interstellar and circumstellar matter | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20053011 | |
Published online | 21 March 2006 |
The effect of a strong external radiation field on protostellar envelopes in Orion
1
Leiden Observatory, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
2
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street MS42, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA e-mail: jjorgensen@cfa.harvard.edu
3
National Research Council Canada, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, 5071 West Saanich Rd, Victoria, BC, V9E 2E7, Canada
4
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 1A1, Canada
5
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Denison University, Granville, OH 43023, USA
Received:
7
March
2005
Accepted:
5
December
2005
We discuss the effects of an enhanced interstellar radiation
field (ISRF) on the observables of protostellar cores in the Orion
cloud region. Dust radiative transfer is used to constrain the
envelope physical structure by reproducing SCUBA 850 μm
emission. Previously reported 13CO, C17O and H2CO line
observations are reproduced through detailed Monte Carlo line
radiative transfer models. It is found that the 13CO line
emission is marginally optically thick and sensitive to the physical
conditions in the outer envelope. An increased temperature in this
region is needed in order to reproduce the 13CO line strengths
and it is suggested to be caused by a strong heating from the
exterior, corresponding to an ISRF in Orion 103 times stronger
than the “standard” ISRF. The typical temperatures in the outer
envelope are higher than the desorption temperature for CO. The
C17O emission is less sensitive to this increased temperature
but rather traces the bulk envelope material. The data are only fit
by a model where CO is depleted, except in the inner and outermost
regions where the temperature increases above 30–40 K. The fact that
the temperatures do not drop below ≈25 K in any of the
envelopes whereas a significant fraction of CO is frozen-out suggest
that the interstellar radiation field has changed through the
evolution of the cores. The H2CO lines are successfully
reproduced in the model of an increased ISRF with constant
abundances of 3–5 10-10.
Key words: stars: formation / radiative transfer / astrochemistry
© ESO, 2006
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