The spatial distribution of an aromatic molecule, C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>5</sub>CN, in the cold dark cloud TMC-1
J. Cernicharo, B. Tercero, N. Marcelino, M. Agúndez, P. de Vicente
Abstract
We present a highly sensitive 2D line survey of TMC-1 obtained with the Yebes 40 m radio telescope in the Q -band (31.13–49.53 GHz). These maps cover a region of 320″×320″ centred on the position of the QUIJOTE line survey with a spatial sampling of 20″. The region covering 240″×240″, where a longer integration time was used, shows a homogenous sensitivity of 2–4 mK across the band. We present in this work the first determination of the spatial extent of benzonitrile (C 6 H 5 CN), which follows that of cyanopolyynes rather well, but differs significantly from that of the radicals C n H and C n N. We definitively conclude that aromatic species in TMC-1 are formed from chemical reactions involving smaller species in the densest zones of the cloud.