Previous
abstract 
Next
abstract
Session 49 - Young Stellar Objects.
Display session, Tuesday, January 14
Metropolitan Ballroom,
We have detected spatial variations of the 7.5 -- 13.5 \micron\ PAH features in WL 16, a young stellar object in the \rho Ophiuchi dark cloud that is surrounded by a \sim1000 AU diameter IR emitting nebula. Upon analyzing a long-slit spectrum taken along a cross section through the center of the nebula, we find that the features in the 7.6 -- 8.9 \micron\ range decrease in intensity more rapidly with distance from the central star than features at longer wavelengths. As both the 8.6 \micron\ feature and that of the wing of the 7.7 \micron\ feature decline more rapidly with distance than the 11.3 \micron\ feature, we suspect that the PAH molecules near WL 16 are subjugated to an ionizing and/or dehydrogenating flux field.
