Four annular structures in a protostellar disk less than 500,000 years old.

Annular structures (rings and gaps) in disks around pre-main-sequence stars have been detected in abundance towards class II protostellar objects that are approximately 1,000,000 years old1. These structures are often interpreted as evidence of planet formation1-3, with planetary-mass bodies carving rings and gaps in the disk4. This implies that planet formation may already be underway in even younger disks in the class I phase, when the protostar is still embedded in a larger-scale dense envelope of gas and dust5. Only within the past decade have detailed properties of disks in the earliest star-forming phases been observed6,7. Here we report 1.3-millimetre dust emission observations with a resolution of five astronomical units that show four annular substructures in the disk of the young (less than 500,000 years old)8 protostar IRS 63. IRS 63 is a single class I source located in the nearby Ophiuchus molecular cloud at a distance of 144 parsecs9, and is one of the brightest class I protostars at millimetre wavelengths. IRS 63 also has a relatively large disk compared to other young disks (greater than 50 astronomical units)10. Multiple annular substructures observed towards disks at young ages can act as an early foothold for dust-grain growth, which is a prerequisite of planet formation. Whether or not planets already exist in the disk of IRS 63, it is clear that the planet-formation process begins in the initial protostellar phases, earlier than predicted by current planet-formation theories11.

Overtone Transition 2ν1 of HCO+ and HOC+: Origin, Radiative Lifetime, Collisional Quenching.

We present spectra of the first overtone vibration transition of C-H/ O-H stretch (2ν1) in HCO+ and HOC+, recorded using a laser induced reaction action scheme inside a cryogenic 22 pole radio frequency trap. Band origins have been located at 6078.68411(19) and 6360.17630(26) cm-1, respectively. We introduce a technique based on mass selective ejection from the ion trap for recording background free action spectra. Varying the number density of the neutral action scheme reactant (CO2 and Ar, respectively) and collisional partner reactant inside the ion trap, permitted us to estimate the radiative lifetime of the state to be 1.53(34) and 1.22(34) ms, respectively, and the collisional quenching rates of HCO+(2ν1) with He, H2, and N2.

Measurements of rate coefficients of CN+, HCN+, and HNC+ collisions with H2 at cryogenic temperatures.

The experimental determination of the reaction rate coefficients for production and destruction of HCN+ and HNC+ in collision with H2 is presented. A variable-temperature, 22-pole radio frequency ion trap was used to study the reactions in the temperature range 17-250 K. The obtained rate coefficients for the reaction of CN+ and HCN+ with H2 are close to the collisional (Langevin) value, whereas that for the reaction of HNC+ with H2 is quickly decreasing with increasing temperature. The product branching ratios for the reaction of CN+ with H2 are also reported and show a notable decrease of the HNC+ product with respect to the HCN+ product with increasing temperature. These measurements have consequences for current astrochemical models of cyanide chemistry, in particular, for the HCNH+ cation.

The formation of a quadruple star system with wide separation.

The initial multiplicity of stellar systems is highly uncertain. A number of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the origin of binary and multiple star systems, including core fragmentation, disk fragmentation and stellar capture. Observations show that protostellar and pre-main-sequence multiplicity is higher than the multiplicity found in field stars, which suggests that dynamical interactions occur early, splitting up multiple systems and modifying the initial stellar separations. Without direct, high-resolution observations of forming systems, however, it is difficult to determine the true initial multiplicity and the dominant binary formation mechanism. Here we report observations of a wide-separation (greater than 1,000 astronomical units) quadruple system composed of a young protostar and three gravitationally bound dense gas condensations. These condensations are the result of fragmentation of dense gas filaments, and each condensation is expected to form a star on a timescale of 40,000 years. We determine that the closest pair will form a bound binary, while the quadruple stellar system itself is bound but unstable on timescales of 500,000 years (comparable to the lifetime of the embedded protostellar phase). These observations suggest that filament fragmentation on length scales of about 5,000 astronomical units offers a viable pathway to the formation of multiple systems.

H2D(+) observations give an age of at least one million years for a cloud core forming Sun-like stars.

The age of dense interstellar cloud cores, where stars and planets form, is a crucial parameter in star formation and difficult to measure. Some models predict rapid collapse, whereas others predict timescales of more than one million years (ref. 3). One possible approach to determining the age is through chemical changes as cloud contraction occurs, in particular through indirect measurements of the ratio of the two spin isomers (ortho/para) of molecular hydrogen, H2, which decreases monotonically with age. This has been done for the dense cloud core L183, for which the deuterium fractionation of diazenylium (N2H(+)) was used as a chemical clock to infer that the core has contracted rapidly (on a timescale of less than 700,000 years). Among astronomically observable molecules, the spin isomers of the deuterated trihydrogen cation, ortho-H2D(+) and para-H2D(+), have the most direct chemical connections to H2 (refs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) and their abundance ratio provides a chemical clock that is sensitive to greater cloud core ages. So far this ratio has not been determined because para-H2D(+) is very difficult to observe. The detection of its rotational ground-state line has only now become possible thanks to accurate measurements of its transition frequency in the laboratory, and recent progress in instrumentation technology. Here we report observations of ortho- and para-H2D(+) emission and absorption, respectively, from the dense cloud core hosting IRAS 16293-2422 A/B, a group of nascent solar-type stars (with ages of less than 100,000 years). Using the ortho/para ratio in conjunction with chemical models, we find that the dense core has been chemically processed for at least one million years. The apparent discrepancy with the earlier N2H(+) work arises because that chemical clock turns off sooner than the H2D(+) clock, but both results imply that star-forming dense cores have ages of about one million years, rather than 100,000 years.

State-to-State Rate Coefficients for NH3-NH3 Collisions from Pump-Probe Chirped Pulse Experiments.

The kinetics of rotational inelastic NH3-NH3 collisions are recorded using pump-probe experiments, carried out with a K-band waveguide chirped pulse Fourier transform microwave spectrometer, in which the population of one inversion doublet is altered by the pump pulse. Due to self-collisions, the resulting deviation from equilibrium propagates to other states and, thus, can be interrogated by probe pulses as a function of the pump-probe delay time. A clear hierarchy of the state-to-state collision processes is found and subsequently translated into propensity rules. State-to-state rate coefficients are estimated, first via an analysis of the kinetics, and then more robustly and accurately derived from the pressure-dependent measurements using a global fitting procedure.

The Spatial Distribution of Complex Organic Molecules in the L1544 Pre-stellar Core.

The detection of complex organic molecules (COMs) toward cold sources such as pre-stellar cores (with T<10 K), has challenged our understanding of the formation processes of COMs in the interstellar medium. Recent modelling on COM chemistry at low temperatures has provided new insight into these processes predicting that COM formation depends strongly on parameters such as visual extinction and the level of CO freeze out. We report deep observations of COMs toward two positions in the L1544 pre-stellar core: the dense, highly-extinguished continuum peak with A V ≥30 mag within the inner 2700 au; and a low-density shell with average A V ~7.5-8 mag located at 4000 au from the core's center and bright in CH3OH. Our observations show that CH3O, CH3OCH3 and CH3CHO are more abundant (by factors ~2-10) toward the low-density shell than toward the continuum peak. Other COMs such as CH3OCHO, c-C3H2O, HCCCHO, CH2CHCN and HCCNC show slight enhancements (by factors ≤3) but the associated uncertainties are large. This suggests that COMs are actively formed and already present in the low-density shells of pre-stellar cores. The modelling of the chemistry of O-bearing COMs in L1544 indicates that these species are enhanced in this shell because i) CO starts freezing out onto dust grains driving an active surface chemistry; ii) the visual extinction is sufficiently high to prevent the UV photo-dissociation of COMs by the external interstellar radiation field; and iii) the density is still moderate to prevent severe depletion of COMs onto grains.

Are gas-phase models of interstellar chemistry tenable? The case of methanol.

We consider the case of methanol production in cold dark clouds, also known as quiescent cores, for which recent work shows that a purely gas-phase synthesis is unlikely to produce a sufficient amount to explain the observational fractional abundance of approximately 10(-9). Moreover, recent experiments appear to confirm a previous hypothesis that methanol can be formed on cold grain surfaces by the hydrogenation of CO via successive reactions with hydrogen atoms. In this paper we consider two ways of including the surface formation of methanol into chemical models of cold dark clouds. First, we use a gas-phase model and artificially include the surface formation of methanol in the same manner that the formation of molecular hydrogen is included. Secondly, we utilize a gas-grain code with a new mechanism for desorption following exothermic chemical reactions on grain surfaces. The latter method can reproduce the observed fractional abundance of gas-phase methanol and many other gas-phase species in the well-studied cold dark cloud TMC1-CP but the best fit to the observational data occurs at times significantly later than at ages estimated from gas-phase models.