Silicon in the dust formation zone of IRC+10216 [Letter]

Decin, L., Cernicharo, J., Barlow, M. J., Royer, P., Vandenbussche, B., Wesson, R., Polehampton, E. T., De Beck, E., Agúndez, M., Blommaert, J. A. D. L., Cohen, M., Daniel, F., De Meester, W., Exter, K., Feuchtgruber, H., Fonfría, J. P., Gear, Walter Kieran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6789-6196, Goicoechea, J. R., Gomez, Haley Louise ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-0052, Groenewegen, M. A. T., Hargrave, Peter Charles ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3109-6629, Huygen, R., Imhof, P., Ivison, R. J., Jean, C., Kerschbaum, F., Leeks, S. J., Lim, T., Matsuura, Mikako ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5529-5593, Olofsson, G., Posch, T., Regibo, S., Savini, G., Sibthorpe, B., Swinyard, B. M., Tercero, B., Waelkens, C., Witherick, D. K. and Yates, J. A. 2010. Silicon in the dust formation zone of IRC+10216 [Letter]. Astronomy and Astrophysics 518 , L143. 10.1051/0004-6361/201014562

Preview

PDF Download (274kB) | Preview

Abstract

The interstellar medium is enriched primarily by matter ejected from evolved low and intermediate mass stars. The outflows from these stars create a circumstellar envelope in which a rich gas-phase and dust-nucleation chemistry takes place. We observed the nearest carbon-rich evolved star, IRC +10216, using the PACS (55–210 μm) and SPIRE (194–672 μm) spectrometers on board Herschel. We find several tens of lines from SiS and SiO, including lines from the v = 1 vibrational level. For SiS these transitions range up to J = 124–123, corresponding to energies around 6700 K, while the highest detectable transition is J = 90–89 for SiO, which corresponds to an energy around 8400 K. Both species trace the dust formation zone of IRC +10216, and the broad energy ranges involved in their detected transitions permit us to derive the physical properties of the gas and the particular zone in which each species has been formed. This allows us to check the accuracy of chemical thermodynamical equilibrium models and the suggested depletion of SiS and SiO due to accretion onto dust grains.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Uncontrolled Keywords:	techniques: spectroscopic / stars: AGB and post-AGB / stars: carbon / circumstellar matter / stars: mass-loss / stars: individual: IRC +10216
Publisher:	EDP Sciences
ISSN:	0004-6361
Last Modified:	06 May 2023 17:10
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/22331

Citation Data

Cited 28 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item