| Description |
Study of the molecular content of regions far beyond our Solar Systemhas advanced enormously during the last few decades, from the firstdetections of diatomic molecules to the discovery of polyatomic,complex organic molecules. Nowadays, one major goal of Astrochemistryis to have the most accurate census of the molecular content (andcomplexity) in Star Forming Regions (SFRs). In the era of themolecular content census, unbiased spectral surveys in the radio to Infrared ofSFRs have become a fundamental and necessary tool in modern astrochemistry research.In this context, the frequency range covered by HSO-HIFI, 500-2000GHz, is of particular importance. It is in this frequency range thatlight molecules have their ground and low energy transitions, whereasheavier molecules have higher energy transitions. The latter areexcited in the warm gas, whereas the former probe the gas at lowtemperatures as well. It is therefore in the HIFI frequency rangethat the major gas coolants (notably H _2 O) and some key componentsof the chemical composition of SFRs emit.We propose to obtain Spectral Surveys in the HSO-HIFI range of arepresentative sample of SFRs. To have a meaningful coverage of thedifferent evolutionary stages and different masses requires a largeamount of time, about 300 hrs. The proposed observations will providea large dataset of uttermost interest for the entire astronomicalcommunity, and, particularly for the study of star formation processesand of the influence of chemistry on star and planet formation. Thesetwo basic aspects, a large requested observing time and an output ofhigh archival value, make the present proposal suitable for a HSO KeyProgram. |
