Spectral Tomography for the Line-of-sight Structures of the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1

Abstract

Abstract We clarify the line-of-sight structure of the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 (TMC-1) on the basis of the CCS (J N = 43−32) and HC3N (J = 5−4) spectral data observed at a very high velocity resolution and sensitivity of ΔV ≃ 0.0004 km s−1 (=61 Hz) and ΔT mb ≃ 40 mK. The data were obtained toward the cyanopolyyne peak with ∼30 hr integration using the Z45 receiver and the PolariS spectrometer installed in the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. Analyses of the optically thin F = 4−4 and 5−5 hyperfine lines of the HC3N emission show that the spectra consist of four distinct velocity components with a small line width (≲0.1 km s−1) at V LSR = 5.727, 5.901, 6.064, and 6.160 km s−1, which we call A, B, C, and D, respectively, in the order of increasing LSR velocities. Utilizing the velocity information of the four velocity components, we further analyzed the optically thicker CCS spectrum and the other hyperfine lines of the HC3N emission by solving the radiative transfer to investigate how the four velocity components overlap along the line of sight. Results indicate that they are located in the order of A, B, C, and D from far side to near side to the observer, indicating that TMC-1 is shrinking, moving inward as a whole.