CO: Twenty-Five Years of Millimeter-Wave Spectroscopy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Present and Future CO Surveys

      • P. Thaddeus

      Pages 3-10

   3. CO in the Milky Way

      • Leo Blitz

      Pages 11-18

   4. A Molecular Worm in Scutum

      • T. M. Dame

      Pages 19-21

   5. Molecular Clouds Observed with the Egret Gamma-Ray Telescope

      • Seth W. Digel, Stanley D. Hunter, Reshmi Mukherjee, Isabelle A. Grenier, Andreas Heithausen, Gottfried Kanbach et al.

      Pages 22-24

   6. CO and the Multiphase ISM

      • Christopher F. Mckee

      Pages 25-32

   7. The Ursa Major Molecular Clouds

      • Marc W. Pound, Alyssa A. Goodman

      Pages 33-35

   8. FCRAO CO Survey of the Outer Galaxy

      • Mark H. Heyer

      Pages 36-38

   9. The CO 2-1/1-0 Ratio

      • Tetsuo Hasegawa

      Pages 39-46

   10. Mapping Dust Extinction in Molecular Clouds

       • João Alves, Charles J. Lada

       Pages 47-49

   11. On the Fractal Structure of Molecular Clouds

       • J. Stutzki, A. Heithausen, F. Bensch

       Pages 50-53

   12. The Origin and Structure of Molecular Clouds

       • John Bally

       Pages 54-56

   13. Molecular Gas Near the Galactic Center

       • Mark Morris

       Pages 57-64

   14. CO Mapping of the Inner Few Hundred Parsecs of the Galaxy

       • Tomoharu Oka, Tetsuo Hasegawa, Toshihiro Handa, Fumio Sato, Masato Tsuboi

       Pages 65-67

3. Chemistry

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69

      PDF

   2. Theoretical Chemistry

      • Eric Herbst

      Pages 71-78

   3. Observational Chemistry

      • C. M. Walmsley

      Pages 79-86

   4. CO at other Wavelengths

      • John H. Black

      Pages 87-94

   5. Millimeter-Wave Absorption Studies of the Onset of Dark-Cloud Chemistry

      • R. Lucas, H. S. Liszt

      Pages 95-97

Interstellar carbon monoxide (CO) was first detected in 1970 with the 36 foot diameter telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory! on Kitt Peak in Southern Arizona. R. W. Wilson, K. B. Jefferts, and A. A. Penzias of Bell Labs reported, "We have found intense 2.6 mm line radiation 2 from nine Galactic sources which we attribute to carbon monoxide." Soon afterward, several other basic molecules were also observed in space. IAU Symposium 170, CO: Twenty Five Years of Millimeter Wave Spectroscopy, was organized to commemorate those discoveries. The Symposium reviewed the accomplishments of a quarter century of research on interstellar molec­ ular gas, surveyed the current state of millimeter-wave spectroscopy, and gave a glimpse of what the next 25 years might hold. Studies of interstellar CO have revolutionized our understanding of the phases and dynamics of the interstellar medium, the initial and final stages of stellar evolution, the chemistry of dense and diffuse interstellar matter and of the solar system, the structure of the Milky Way galaxy, and the content and structure of other galaxies, some very distant. Spectroscopic studies of CO and other molecules are primary tools for investigating all these topics, which are among the most fundamental and active research areas in astrophysics. New developments in instrumentation, including sev­ eral powerful new telescopes, continue to keep millimeter and submillimeter wavelength radio astronomy at the forefront of research.

• astronomy
• astrophysics
• galaxy
• interstellar matter
• milky way
• observatory
• planet
• radio astronomy
• solar system
• spectroscopy
• star
• star formation
• stellar evolution
• telescope

• NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, USA

  William B. Latter

• National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, USA

  Simon J. E. Radford, Philip R. Jewell, Jeffrey G. Mangum

• CASA, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

  John Bally

Policies and ethics