A search for interstellar gas-phase CO2

Abstract

CO2 is one of the simplest carbon- and oxygen-containing molecules, for which little is known in interstellar space, because of its high abundance in the Earth's atmosphere. Only indirect searches of the chemically related HOCO+ ion have been possible from the ground (Thaddeus et al. 1981; Minh et al. 1988, 1991). The ISO Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) (de Graauw et al. 1996a) opens up the possibility to search for the infraredactive asymmetric stretch and bending modes of gas-phase CO2 around 4.3 and 15.0 μm toward bright infrared sources.