A new thermometer for external galaxies

A new thermometer for external galaxies

We introduce a new spectroscopic method at radio frequencies to measure the temperature of giant cloud complexes in external galaxies. We have detected the λ = 1.3 cm J , K = 2, 2 inversion transition of NH 3 in the nucleus of the galaxy IC342. This result, taken together with our previous detection...

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Veröffentlicht in:Nature (London) 1982-04, Vol.296 (5858), p.632-633
Hauptverfasser: Martin, Robert N, Ho, Paul T. P, Ruf, K
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Zusammenfassung:We introduce a new spectroscopic method at radio frequencies to measure the temperature of giant cloud complexes in external galaxies. We have detected the λ = 1.3 cm J , K = 2, 2 inversion transition of NH 3 in the nucleus of the galaxy IC342. This result, taken together with our previous detection of the J , K = 1, 1 transition 1 allows us to deduce a kinetic temperature of 50±15 K and an equivalent size scale of at least 25 pc for the molecular gas. The results are consistent with line formation in the nucleus where very active star formation is taking place.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/296632a0