Mapping Observations of Peptide-like Molecules around Sagittarius B2

Abstract

Abstract Peptide-like molecules, which have a close connection with the origin of life, have been detected in the Universe. Mapping observations of HCONH2 and CH3CONH2, two of the simplest peptide-like molecules, are performed toward the Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2) complex with the IRAM 30 m telescope. Seven transitions of HCONH2 and five transitions of CH3CONH2 are used in the analysis. The spatial distributions of the excitation temperature and column density of HCONH2 in the molecular envelope of Sgr B2 are obtained by rotation diagrams. Assuming the same excitation temperature of HCONH2, the column densities of CH3CONH2 are also calculated. The results show that the excitation temperature ranges from 6 to 46 K in the molecular envelope of Sgr B2. The abundance ratios between HCONH2 and CH3CONH2 are calculated to explore the relationship between them, as are those between HCONH2 and HNCO. The abundance ratio of CH3CONH2/HCONH2 varies from 10% to 20%, while that of HCONH2/HNCO ranges from 1.5% to 10%. CH3CONH2 is enhanced with respect to HCONH2 in the northwest region of Sgr B2. One transition of H13CONH2 is detected toward 12 positions of Sgr B2, from which a 12C/13C ratio of 28.7 is obtained. A time-dependent chemical model with a short-duration X-ray burst is used to explain the observed abundances of HCONH2 and CH3CONH2, with the best-fitting result at T dust = 53–56 K. More chemical reactions are required to be included in the model since the modeled abundance is lower than the observed one at the observed T dust.