Study of Formaldehyde Gas in the Interstellar Medium of the Milky Way

Sumner S. G. Ranft, *Loren D. Anderson
Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, Morgantown WV, 26505-6045

Presentation Category: Mathematics & Physical Sciences (Poster Presentation)

Student’s Major: Chemistry

The Interstellar medium is an uncontrollable environment that throws gas clouds into many different physical states. When studying these clouds, we need to know the physical state of them so that we can better understand how the Interstellar medium recycles material to create new stars. Formaldehyde is a good indicator of the physical state that a gas cloud is in. It can give important details about kinetic temperature and the density of the cloud. In addition to this, formaldehyde is found all over the Milky Way and it is very often found near HII regions, where stars are born. To get the necessary information from the clouds, we will use data that is gathered from the Green Bank telescope along sight lines to look for formaldehyde absorption. When a sight line is found, we use a program called SAOImage DS9 to see a graph of values that shows how high the absorption from formaldehyde is. In conclusion, this will reveal the source of formaldehyde absorption and the source of the absorption signal.

Funding:

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: a West Virginia SURE program