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تسجيل مستخدم جديدThe widespread occurence of water vapor in the circumstellar envelopes of carbon-rich AGB stars: first results from a survey with Herschel/HIFI
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D. A. Neufeld
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We report the preliminary results of a survey for water vapor in a sample of eight C stars with large mid-IR continuum fluxes: V384 Per, CIT 6, V Hya, Y CVn, IRAS 15194-5115, V Cyg, S Cep, and IRC+40540. This survey, performed using the HIFI instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory, entailed observations of the lowest transitions of both ortho- and para-water: the 556.936 GHz 1(10)-1(01) and 1113.343 GHz 1(11)-0(00) transitions, respectively. Water vapor was unequivocally detected in all eight of the target stars. Prior to this survey, IRC+10216 was the only carbon-rich AGB star from which thermal water emissions had been discovered, in that case with the use of the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS). Our results indicate that IRC+10216 is not unusual, except insofar as its proximity to Earth leads to a large line flux that was detectable with SWAS. The water spectral line widths are typically similar to those of CO rotational lines, arguing against the vaporization of a Kuiper belt analog (Ford & Neufeld 2001) being the general explanation for water vapor in carbon-rich AGB stars. There is no apparent correlation between the ratio of the integrated water line fluxes to the 6.3 micron continuum flux - a ratio which measures the water outflow rate - and the total mass-loss rate for the stars in our sample.
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We argue that the presence of water vapor in the circumstellar outflow of a carbon-rich AGB star is potentially a distinctive signature of extra-solar cometary systems. Detailed models show that at suitable distances from the star, water ice can surv
ive well into the carbon-rich AGB phase; water vapor abundances as large as 10^-6 could result from the vaporization of a collection of orbiting icy bodies with a total mass comparable to what might have been originally present in the solar systems Kuiper Belt. In particular, the recently-reported detection by the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite of water vapor in the circumstellar outflow of IRC+10216 can be explained if ~10 Earth masses of ice is present at a distance ~300 AU from that carbon-rich star. Future observations with the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO, formerly known as FIRST) will facilitate sensitive multi-transition observations of water, yielding line ratios that can establish the radial distribution of water vapor in IRC+10216. The greater sensitivity of HSO will also allow searches for water vapor to be carried out in a much larger sample of carbon-rich AGB stars.
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