Issue |
A&A
Volume 521, October 2010
Herschel/HIFI: first science highlights
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L3 | |
Number of page(s) | 5 | |
Section | Letters | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201015068 | |
Published online | 01 October 2010 |
Herschel/HIFI: first science highlights
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Herschel/HIFI observations of high-J CO transitions in the
protoplanetary nebula CRL 618![[*]](/icons/foot_motif.png)
V. Bujarrabal1 - J. Alcolea2 - R. Soria-Ruiz2 - P. Planesas1,12 - D. Teyssier7 - A. P. Marston7 - J. Cernicharo3 - L. Decin4,5 - C. Dominik5,14 - K. Justtanont6 - A. de Koter5,15 - G. Melnick8 - K. M. Menten9 - D. A. Neufeld10 - H. Olofsson6,11 - M. Schmidt13 - F. L. Schöier6 - R. Szczerba13 - L. B. F. M. Waters5,4 - G. Quintana-Lacaci16 - R. Güsten9 - J. D. Gallego17 - M. C. Díez-González17 - A. Barcia17 - I. López-Fernández17 - K. Wildeman18 - A. G. G. M. Tielens19 - K. Jacobs20
1 - Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN), Ap 112, 28803
Alcalá de Henares, Spain
2 -
Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN), Alfonso XII N3,
28014 Madrid, Spain
3 -
CAB, INTA-CSIC, Ctra de Torrejón a Ajalvir, km 4,
28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain
4 - Instituut voor Sterrenkunde,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001
Leuven, Belgium
5 -
Sterrenkundig Instituut Anton Pannekoek, University of Amsterdam,
Science Park 904, 1098 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
6 -
Onsala Space Obseravtory, Dept. of Radio and Space Science, Chalmers
University of Technology, 43992 Onsala, Sweden
7 -
European Space Astronomy Centre, ESA, PO Box 78, 28691
Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
8 -
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
9 -
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69,
53121 Bonn, Germany
10 -
The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles St, Baltimore, MD
21218, USA
11 -
Department of Astronomy, AlbaNova University Center, Stockholm
University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
12 -
Joint ALMA Observatory, El Golf 40, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
13 -
N. Copernicus Astronomical Center, Rabianska 8, 87-100 Torun, Poland
14 -
Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
15 -
Astronomical Institute, Utrecht University,
Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
16 -
Instituto de Radioastronomía Milimétrica (IRAM),
Avda. Divina Pastora 7, 18012 Granada, Spain
17 -
Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN),
Centro
Astronómico de Yebes, Apartado 148, 19080 Guadalajara, Spain
18 -
SRON, Netherlands Institute for Space Research,
Landleven
12, 9747 AD Groningen, The Netherlands
19 -
Sterrewacht Leiden, University of Leiden, PO Box 9513,
2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
20 -
KOSMA, I. Physik. Institut, Universität zu
Köln, Zülpicher
Str. 77, 50937 Köln, Germany
Received 28 May 2010 / Accepted 22 June 2010
Abstract
Aims. We aim to study the physical conditions, particularly
the excitation state, of the intermediate-temperature gas components in
the protoplanetary nebula CRL 618. These components are
particularly important for understanding the evolution of the nebula.
Methods. We performed Herschel/HIFI observations of
several CO lines in the far-infrared/sub-mm in the protoplanetary
nebula CRL 618. The high spectral resolution provided by HIFI
allows measurement of the line profiles. Since the dynamics and
structure of the nebula is well known from mm-wave interferometric
maps, it is possible to identify the contributions of the different
nebular components (fast bipolar outflows, double shells, compact slow
shell) to the line profiles. The observation of these relatively
high-energy transitions allows an accurate study of the excitation
conditions in these components, particularly in the warm ones, which
cannot be properly studied from the low-energy lines.
Results. The 12CO J = 16-15, 10-9, and 6-5 lines are easily detected in this source. Both 13CO J = 10-9 and 6-5 are also detected. Wide profiles showing spectacular line wings have been found, particularly in 12CO J = 16-15. Other lines observed simultaneously with CO are also shown. Our analysis of the CO high-J
transitions, when compared with the existing models, confirms the very
low expansion velocity of the central, dense component, which probably
indicates that the shells ejected during the last AGB phases were
driven by radiation pressure under a regime of maximum transfer of
momentum. No contribution of the diffuse halo found from mm-wave data
is identified in our spectra, because of its low temperature. We find
that the fast bipolar outflow is quite hot, much hotter than previously
estimated; for instance, gas flowing at 100 km s-1 must have a temperature higher than 200 K.
Probably, this very fast outflow, with a kinematic age <100 yr,
has been accelerated by a shock and has not yet cooled down. The double
empty shell found from mm-wave mapping must also be relatively hot, in
agreement with the previous estimate.
Key words: stars: AGB and post-AGB - circumstellar matter - stars: mass-loss - planetary nebulae: general - planetary nebulae: individual: CRL 618
1 Introduction
Protoplanetary nebulae (PPNe) are known to present very fast bipolar
outflows, along with slower components, which are probably the remnants
of the mass ejection during the previous AGB phase. The bipolar flows
typically reach velocities of 100 km s-1, and affect a sizable fraction
of the nebular mass, 0.1-0.3
(Bujarrabal et al. 2001). These
dense flows actually represent intermediate states in the spectacular
evolution from the spherical and slowly expanding circumstellar
envelopes around AGB stars to the planetary nebulae, which usually show
bipolar or ring-like symmetries. Such remarkable dynamics is probably
the result of the interaction between the AGB and post-AGB winds:
axial, very fast post-AGB jets colliding with the denser material
driven isotropically away from the star during its AGB phase
(e.g. Balick & Frank 2002). The presently observed bipolar
outflows would then correspond to a part of the relatively dense shells
ejected during the last AGB phase, mostly their polar regions,
accelerated by the shocks that propagate during the PPN phase.
The massive bipolar outflows in PPNe, as well as the unaltered remnants
of the AGB shells, usually show strong emission in molecular lines
(Bujarrabal et al. 2001). PPNe have been accurately observed in mm-wave lines,
particularly by means of interferometric maps with resolutions 1
.
Thanks to those observations, the structure, dynamics, and
physical conditions in these nebulae are often quite well
known. However, observations of the low-J transitions are not very
useful for studying the warm gas components. The well-studied J = 2-1 and
J = 1-0 transitions of 12CO only require temperatures of
15 K to be excited.
Indeed their maximum emissivity
occurs for excitation temperatures of 10-20 K, and the line
intensities and line intensity ratios only slightly depend on the
excitation state in relatively warm gas. Needless to
say, observations in the visible or near infrared ranges tend to select
hot regions, with typical temperatures over 1000 K. The proper study of
warm regions, 100 K
1000 K, therefore requires
observations at intermediate wavelengths, in the far infrared (FIR) and
sub-mm ranges.
Because of the role of shocks in PPN evolution, these warm regions are
particularly important for understanding nebular structure and
evolution. In some well-studied cases, e.g. M 1-92 and M 2-56
(Castro-Carrizo et al. 2002; Alcolea et al. 2007; Bujarrabal et al. 1998), the high-velocity, massive
outflows are found to be very cold, with temperatures 20 K,
which implies very fast cooling in the shock-accelerated gas. No
warm component representing the gas recently accelerated by the shock
front has been identified in these sources. In other cases such
as CRL 618,
interferometric imaging of the 12CO J = 2-1 line shows that dense gas
in axial structures presents higher temperatures (Sánchez Contreras et al. 2004, hereafter,
SC04). But, precisely because of their relatively high
excitation, the temperature estimate in these components from CO
J = 2-1 is very uncertain. Indeed, even the presence of such high
excitation in the dense bipolar outflows in CRL 618 remained to be
demonstrated.
Other attempts to study the warm gas in CRL 618 were carried out by (i) Justtanont et al. (2000) from ISO data with low spectral resolution; (ii) Pardo et al. (2004), who focused on the chemistry of the different components; and (iii) Nakashima et al. (2007), who also obtained maps of the J = 6-5 transition in CRL 618, but with less detail than in SC04.
The Herschel Space Telescope is well-suited to studying warm gas around evolved stars in the FIR and sub-mm. The high spectral resolution that can be achieved with its heterodyne instrument HIFI (better than 1 km s-1) is particularly useful for this purpose, since kinematics offers a fundamental key to understanding this warm, shocked gas. Here we present Herschel/HIFI observations of CRL 618 in several molecular lines of 12CO and 13CO that were obtained as part of the guaranteed-time key program HIFISTARS, which is devoted to the study of intermediate-excitation molecular lines in nebulae around evolved stars.
![]() |
Figure 1:
HIFI observations containing detected 12CO and 13CO lines
in CRL 618 (
|
Open with DEXTER |
2 Observations
We used the Herschel/HIFI instrument (Pilbratt et al. 2010; de Graauw et al. 2010) to observe the J = 6-5, 10-9, and 16-15 transitions of 12CO and 13CO in the PPN CRL 618 (13CO J = 16-15 was not detected); see Figs. 1 and 2. Other molecular lines were also detected within the observed frequency ranges. The data were taken using the two orthogonal HIFI receivers available at each band. Both receivers work in double side-band (DSB) mode, which effectively doubles the instantaneous IF coverage. Care was taken when choosing the local oscillator frequency, maximizing the number of observed interesting lines.
The observations were obtained in the dual-beam-switching (DBS)
mode. In this mode, the HIFI internal steering mirror chops between the
source position and an emission-free position 3
away. The
telescope then alternatively locates the source in either of the
chopped beams, providing a double-difference calibration scheme, which
allows a more efficient cancellation of the residual standing waves in
the spectra (see additional details in
Roelfsema et al. 2010). This procedure works very well
except for the J = 16-15 lines, where strong ripples were found in some
spectra, especially in the V-receiver.
The HIFI data shown here were taken using the wide-band spectrometer (WBS), an acousto-optical spectrometer that provides simultaneous coverage of the full instantaneous IF band in the two available orthogonal receivers, with a spectral resolution of 1.1 MHz. The data shown in all the figures have been resampled and smoothed to a resolution of about 2 km s-1.
Table 1: Summary of the Herschel telescope characteristics.
![]() |
Figure 2:
12CO lines observed in CRL 618 with HIFI, in units of
|
Open with DEXTER |
The data were processed with the standard HIFI pipeline using HIPE,
with a modified version of the level 2 algorithm that yields unaveraged
spectra with all spectrometer sub-bands stitched together. Later on,
the spectra were exported to CLASS using the hiClass tool within HIPE,
for further inspection, flagging out data with outstanding ripple
residuals, final averaging, and baseline removal. We checked that the
profile of the 12CO J = 16-15 line, in particular, is not significantly
affected by ripples, which in fact are not noticeable even in the
relatively flat parts of the final spectrum. The data were originally
calibrated in antenna temperature units and later converted into
main-beam temperatures (
). In all cases we assumed a
side-band gain ratio of one. A summary of the telescope
characteristics and observational uncertainties is given in Table 1.
We also report here 12CO J=4-3 and 7-6 lines observed from the ground with the APEX telescope. These
observations were performed in preparation for the HIFI observations in
2006 and more details will be given in a future paper. We used the FLASH
receiver equipped with two FTS spectrometers, which allows
simultaneous observation of the two CO lines; see Heyminck et al. (2006) for
a description of the system. The resulting APEX spectra are shown
in Fig. 2, after being rescaled to
units using the
values for the telescope efficiencies given by Güsten et al. (2006). In this
figure, we also show IRAM 30 m data data for 12CO J = 1-0 and 2-1 from Bujarrabal et al. (2001).
3 Nebula model
Detailed mapping of CO emission at 1mm
wavelength was performed by SC04, who derived
the physical conditions, structure, and dynamics of the nebula from
model fitting of their maps. Several warm components were identified
(see Fig. 3): a
compact dense core with temperatures 100 K (decreasing with
distance to the center), a double (empty) shell with a typical
temperature of 200 K, and a very fast bipolar outflow (running inside
the cavities) with temperatures
100 K (also decreasing with
distance). Another cooler component was found: a diffuser
halo expanding at 17 km s-1. The empty shells show a roughly elliptical
shape that strongly suggests that they are the result of a bow-like shock,
but with a moderate expansion velocity. The
expansion velocity of the compact component was found to be
particularly low,
10 km s-1.
As a starting point, we adopted a similar description of the nebula
structure. Calculation of the expected emission in our case must be
more sophisticated, because the high-J CO transitions cannot be
assumed to be thermalized in the whole nebula. Therefore, we determined
the CO level population performing LVG calculations for a large number
of points in the model nebula. LVG calculations are fully justified
here because of the high velocity gradients characteristic of this
source. With these values of the populations we calculated the
emissivity and absorption coefficients at each point. Finally, the
brightness distribution is calculated along a number of lines of sight
and is convolved with the telescope beam shape, described by a Gaussian
function. The results are profiles in units of main-beam temperature,
directly comparable to our observations.
Therefore, opacity effects are properly
taken into account, both in the excitation and line
profile calculations. We have checked that the
high-J lines are often underexcited in our case, particularly for
densities under 106 cm-3.
More detailed discussions of the code and involved uncertainties will be presented in a forthcoming paper. Here we mostly discuss a preliminary comparison of the model results with our observations of the 12CO J=16-15 line. The model fitting cannot be considered as satisfactory without studying all the observed profiles, as well as the mm-wave maps, requiring a very careful treatment of the numerical uncertainties and a detailed discussion of the nebula structure.
4 Results
We present in Fig. 2 our observational results for the 12CO lines obtained with HIFI, together with other lines observed from the ground (Sect. 2). The baseline of the J = 16-15 line is not well determined, because of the lack of spectral coverage and the presence of other lines, which mostly affects the intensity of the line wings at extreme velocities.
We have mentioned (Sect. 1) the interest of observing high-Jtransitions in order to better estimate the excitation conditions in warm regions. Our highest transitions require several hundred K to be significantly excited; for instance, the energy of the 12CO J=16 level is equivalent to 750 K.
We have compared our data with the predictions of the model presented
in Sect. 3, originally developed to explain the mm-wave maps (see
assumed nebula structure in Fig. 3). This model can reasonably explain
the central part of the high-J emission with only moderate changes.
We can see in Fig. 4 the comparison between the observations and
predictions for a model in which the density and temperature of the
shells have been increased
by 25% (dashed, red line).
The asymmetry in the observed profile cannot be explained by
radiative transfer phenomena, and it probably reveals true
asymmetries with respect to the equator that are
not included in our models. The central spectral feature is very narrow
and comes from the low-velocity compact component of the nebula; in
fact, the fitting is improved if the velocity of central component is
still decreased, to typical values 5 km s-1, but keeping the
strong velocity gradient characteristic of this region, in order to
reproduce the triangular shape of the observed feature. The two intense
humps at both sides of the central maximum would come from the hollow
shells.
However, the high-velocity wings are severely underestimated by our
standard model, and we would have to significantly increase the
excitation conditions of the very fast bipolar outflow of CRL 618 to
reproduce their intensity. We can also see in Fig. 4 our predictions
for a model similar to the previous one, but with
K in the regions that present expansion velocities
100 km s-1. Other parameters of the fast outflow, particularly its velocity
and density distributions do not change with respect to the original
model. The asymmetry between the red and blue line wings is not
reproduced by our predictions also in this case. It is remarkable that
the high-velocity outflow obviously contributes to the emission at the
profile central features. Therefore, in this model the requirements to
reproduce the secondary maxima are significantly weaker, and a
temperature similar to or even lower than assumed in our original model
for the empty shells would be compatible with the observations. The
general properties of the central, dense component mentioned before, in
particular its low velocity, are required in this case too. The high
velocity wings are also detected in emission from other molecules, such
as H2O, HCN, and CN (Fig. 1), which must be significantly abundant
in this recently shocked gas.
The relatively high temperatures deduced here for the fast bipolar flow
relax the discrepancy usually found between the high excitation of the
shocked gas predicted by theoretical models and the observational results
(an intricate theoretical problem not discussed in this
letter, see e.g. Lee et al. 2009).
However, the discrepancy persists. Lee et al. (2009) predict
temperatures of the high-velocity gas in CRL 618 over 1000 K
and too weak CO emission in all rotational lines, since shocks are
expected to dissociate molecules.
The low-excitation component of the nebula model by SC04, the extended halo, has apparently no counterpart in the observations, because the model predicts a very low intensity from such cool gas and the high-Jline profiles do not seem to require any contribution from it.
![]() |
Figure 3: Basic model properties used in our calculations, see Sects. 3 and 4 (adapted from SC04). |
Open with DEXTER |
![]() |
Figure 4: 12CO J = 16-15 observed line and predictions of our model (Sects. 3, 4), without (dashed, red line), and with (dot-dashed, green line) significant increase of the excitation in the very fast outflow. |
Open with DEXTER |
In Fig. 1 we also show our HIFI spectra of 13CO lines. The 13CO J = 16-15 observations are not very sensitive, so the line is not detected
with a limit
0.2 K. As we can see, the contrast
between 12CO and 13CO lines is high (mainly in the line wings,
about a factor ten for the highest transitions). This result is
compatible with our calculations, which suggest moderate opacities in
high-J 12CO lines from the main nebular components, in particular
with
(16-15)
1 for gas flowing at
100 km s-1.
Our results can therefore be summarized as follows:
- 1.
- We detected high-J CO emission using Herschel/HIFI. The high-velocity line wings characteristic of this source become progressively dominant as the level energies increase, with 12CO J = 16-15 showing a spectacular composite profile.
- 2.
- The temperature of the very fast bipolar outflow in CRL 618 is
high, significantly higher than the previously adopted values. SC04
proposed a temperature for this component <100 K, which, in view
of the intense line wings seen in the J = 16-15 transition, must
be significantly increased. From our calculations, we estimate that
gas flowing at about 100 km s-1 must have a temperature
200 K. We suggest that this very fast outflow, with a kinematic age <100 yr, was accelerated by a shock and has not yet fully cooled down. The rest of the physical conditions are not significantly changed, therefore the dynamical parameters (including the high momentum and kinetic energy) remain the same as those deduced by SC04.
- 3.
- We confirm the low expansion velocity of the very dense, central
component. This low velocity coincides with a significant increase
in the mass-loss rates during the last
400 yr of the AGB phase (SC04). We suggest that the significant decrease in the expansion velocity is caused by the ejection of material by the star during the last AGB phases being driven by radiation pressure under a regime of maximum momentum transfer from radiation to gas.
HIFI has been designed and built by a consortium of institutes and university departments from across Europe, Canada, and the United States under the leadership of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Groningen, The Netherlands, and with major contributions from Germany, France, and the US. Consortium members are: Canada: CSA, U.Waterloo; France: CESR, LAB, LERMA, IRAM; Germany: KOSMA, MPIfR, MPS; Ireland, NUI Maynooth; Italy: ASI, IFSI-INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri- INAF; Netherlands: SRON, TUD; Poland: CAMK, CBK; Spain: Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN), Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA). Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology - MC2, RSS & GARD; Onsala Space Observatory; Swedish National Space Board, Stockholm University - Stockholm Observatory; Switzerland: ETH Zurich, FHNW; USA: Caltech, J.P.L., NHSC. HCSS / HSpot / HIPE is a joint development (are joint developments) by the Herschel Science Ground Segment Consortium, consisting of ESA, the NASA Herschel Science Center, and the HIFI, PACS, and SPIRE consortia. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish MICINN, program CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010, grant ``ASTROMOL'' (CSD2009-00038). R.Sz. and M.Sch. acknowledge support from grant N 203 393334 from the Polish MNiSW. K.J. acknowledges the funding from SNSB. J.C. acknowledges funding from MICINN, grant AYA2009-07304. This research was performed, in part, through a JPL contract funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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Footnotes
- ... 618
- Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.
All Tables
Table 1: Summary of the Herschel telescope characteristics.
All Figures
![]() |
Figure 1:
HIFI observations containing detected 12CO and 13CO lines
in CRL 618 (
|
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
![]() |
Figure 2:
12CO lines observed in CRL 618 with HIFI, in units of
|
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
![]() |
Figure 3: Basic model properties used in our calculations, see Sects. 3 and 4 (adapted from SC04). |
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
![]() |
Figure 4: 12CO J = 16-15 observed line and predictions of our model (Sects. 3, 4), without (dashed, red line), and with (dot-dashed, green line) significant increase of the excitation in the very fast outflow. |
Open with DEXTER | |
In the text |
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