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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Neufeld, David A., DeWitt, Curtis, Lesaffre, Pierre, Cabrit, Sylvie, Gusdorf, Antoine, Tram, Le Ngoc, Reach, William T.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.04473
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Table of Contents:
  • Using the EXES instrument on SOFIA, we have obtained velocity-resolved spectra of several pure rotational lines of H2 toward shocked molecular gas within three Galactic sources: the supernova remnant (SNR) IC443 (Clump C), a protostellar outflow in the intermediate-mass star-forming region NGC 2071, and the SNR 3C391. These observations had the goal of searching for expected velocity shifts between ortho- and para-H2 transitions emitted by C-type shocks. In contrast in our previous similar study of HH7, the result of our search was negative: no velocity shifts were reliably detected. Several possible explanations for the absence of such shifts are discussed: these include a preshock ortho-to-para ratio that is already close to the high-temperature equilibrium value of 3 (in the case of IC443C), the more complex shock structures evident in all these sources, and the larger projected aperture sizes relative to those in the observations of HH7.