A search for pre-biotic molecules in hot cores^*

¹ Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, 43992 Onsala, Sweden e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
² European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 19001 Santiago, Chile
³ Computer science and engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden

Received: 23 March 2007
Accepted: 11 May 2007

Abstract

Aims.Our aim is to better understand the complex chemistry of organic molecules in the interstellar medium, leading to the formation of pre-biotic molecules such as amino acids.

Methods.We have performed a search for the pre-biotic molecules amino acetonitrile (H₂N CH₂ CN) and vinyl acetylene (C₂H₃ CCH) towards four northern hot core sources using the Onsala 20 m telescope.

Results.We have determined upper limits to the column density of amino acetonitrile (1– cm^-2) and vinyl acetylene (2– cm^-2) in the observed sources. In addition, from the absence of other lines within the observed frequency band, we have further constrained the column density of oxiranecarbonitrile (c-C₃H₃ NO) and amino-ethanol (NH₂ CH₂ CH₂ OH) in these sources.