Previous abstract Next abstract

Session 7 - Planetary & Other Nebulae.
Display session, Monday, June 09
South Main Hall,

[7.09] Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in NGC 1333

G. C. Sloan, J. D. Bregman, L. J. Allamandola (NASA Ames), T. L. Hayward, B. DeVito (Cornell), T. R. Geballe (Joint Astronomy Centre), C. E. Woodward (Wyoming)

We present narrow-band imaging and long-slit spectroscopy of NGC 1333 in the vicinity of SVS 3, a reflection nebula and source of emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We obtained the 3--4 \mum spectroscopy with CGS4 at the 3.8-m UKIRT reflector and the 8--13 \mum data with SpectroCam-10 at the 5-m Hale telescope at Palomar. The N/S slit orientation across SVS 3 reveals spatial variations in the strength and shape of the different PAH emission features. The major PAH features at 3.29 and 11.2 \mum peak 10\arcsec south of SVS 3, while the weaker emission features at 3.40, 3.46, and 3.51 \mum show an additional peak further south on a second emission ridge. Surprisingly, the PAH features at 8.6 and 12.7 \mum peak closer to SVS 3 than the other features, with the maximum 8.6 \mum emission occuring \sim6\arcsec to the south and the 12.7 \mum feature peaking \sim8\arcsec south.

These variations constrain the molecular geometry of the emitting PAHs, their ionization levels, and the degree of hydrogenation as a function of position within the nebula. This is the first time that this level of discrimination among the various states of the emitters has been possible.


If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to www-space.arc.nasa.gov/~sloan. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the the Web space for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back button on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: sloan@ssa1.arc.nasa.gov

Program listing for Monday