CO-H2 and complex organic molecules in TMC-1C

Other exotic compounds, like the weakly-bound dimer (H_2_)_2_, have also been detected in astronomical sources like Jupiter. We aim at detecting for the first time the CO-H_2_ van der Waals complex in the ISM, which if detected can be a sensitive indicator for low temperatures.

We use the IRAM30m telescope, located in Pico Veleta (Spain), to search for the CO-H_2_ complex in a cold, dense core in TMC-1C (with a temperature of 10K). All the brightest CO-H_2_ transitions in the 3mm (80-110GHz) band have been observed with a spectral resolution of 0.5-0.7km/s, reaching a rms noise level of 2mK. The simultaneous observation of a broad frequency band, 16GHz, has allowed us to conduct a serendipitous spectral line survey.