Methanol in the L1551 circumbinary torus

White, Glenn J.; Fridlund, C. W. M.; Bergman, P.; Beardsmore, A.; Liseau, René; Price, M. and Phillips, R. R. (2006). Methanol in the L1551 circumbinary torus. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 651(1) L41-L44.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/509570

Abstract

We report observations of gaseous methanol in an edge-on torus surrounding the young stellar object L1551 IRS 5. The peaks in the torus are separated by similar to 10,000 AU from L1551 IRS 5 and contain similar to 0.03 M<syb>⊕</sub>of cold CH₃OH. We infer that the CH₃OH abundance increases in the outer part of the torus, probably as a result of methanol evaporation from dust grain surfaces heated by the shock luminosity associated with the shocks associated with the jets of an externally located X-ray source. Any methanol released in such a cold environment will rapidly freeze again, spreading CH₃OH throughout the circumbinary torus to nascent dust grains, planetesimals, and primitive bodies. These observations probe the initial chemical conditions of matter infalling onto the disk.

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