liquid masers - OH & water masers, alcohol masers, electric circuits and dust

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Do liquid masers produce the liquid or is it formed later?

Masers are found in different types with water and OH masers and alcohol (Ethanol and Methanol) being the most studied and famous. Do the masers themselves actually produce the liquids or is it a secondary action with the Electric Universe? Masers are electrical (you can not have a magentic field without electricity) and produce plasma emission that will travel in Birkeland currents. Is the reaction with the rest of the Electric Universe and especially dust what forms the liquid?

An OH maser flare with a strong magnetic field in W75N - local Elecrtric Universe circuit dimming?
Water masers within the G333.2–0.6 giant molecular cloud - masers line formation dancing and dust clumps
Giant cloud of space alcohol found (spanning 288 billion miles)  - methanol masers - methanol filiments
Scientists tap into clouds of pure alcohol in outer space - ethanol clouds and formed on sand/dust?

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An OH maser flare with a strong magnetic field in W75N

An OH maser flare with a strong magnetic field in W75N

Astrophysical Masers and their Environments Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 242, 2007
J.M. Chapman & W.A. Baan, eds.


Abstract. A flare of OH maser emission was discovered in W75N in 2000. Its location was
determined with the VLBA to be within 110 AU from one of the ultra-compact HII regions,
VLA2. The flare consisted of several maser spots. Four of the spots were found to form Zeeman
pairs, all of them with a magnetic field strength of about 40 mG. This is the highest ever
magnetic field strength found in OH masers, an order of magnitude higher than in typical OH
masers. We discuss the possible source for the enhanced magnetic field and its relation to the
flare event.


1. Observations
The new observations of the OH maser emission in W75N were conducted on 2001
January 01 with the VLBA in a snapshot mode of 6-min duration. The velocity resolution
was 0.176 km s?1 covering 45 km s?1 in each of the OH main lines at 1665 MHz and
1667 MHz. In addition, we reduced and analyzed archived observations from the EVN and
VLBA for 2000 September 27 and 2000 November 22 and 2001 January 6, respectively.
Both data sets had the same velocity resolution though different velocity coverage.
All three sets of data have been obtained during the maximum phase of the OH maser
flare. The data were reduced in the standard way using NRAO AIPS package. Most of
the maser spots were unresolved by the synthesized beam. The absolute position given
in Table 1 was measured through fringe rates using AIPS task FRMAP.


2. Discussion: Flare and magnetic field
Two new strong spectral features have appeared since the 1998 observations, at the
low-velocity side of the spectrum. On the other hand, two relatively strong spectral features
from the 1998 spectrum became a factor of three weaker in the 2000–2001 spectra.
It is also evident from the spectra that the new “flare” features were rapidly evolving in
about a three months time interval, between 2000 September 27 (EVN) and 2001 January
1 (VLBA). Four months later, on 2001 April 12, these features had become considerably
weaker as observed with the Bear Lake 64-m single dish telescope (Alakoz et al. 2005).
In the same time interval the rest of the spectral features remained unchanged. All constant
features are connected with the ultra-compact HII region VLA1 while the variable
features are connected with VLA2.

Table 1. OH Zeeman pairs in W75N
(a Z1 is spot A: with a measured absolute position of RA = 20h38m36s.416; DEC = 4237’34”.42
(0”.01) (J2000). b 1667 MHz. c 1667 MHz (Fish et al. 2005, table 15). This Zeeman pair was
probably overlooked by the authors, or dismissed as showing too large a velocity separation.
dFrom EVN data.)

Compared to the 1998 map (Slysh et al. 2002) several additional spots have been
detected, partly due to a higher sensitivity of the new observations. The other features
166are really new as they are related to the flare which took place between 1998 and 2000.
Also, more accurate absolute positions of OH spots were obtained and are given in
Table 1, as well as the positions of the 1667 MHz spots relative to the 1665 MHz spots.
H2O-masers have also been found near the OH masers inW75N, located in two clusters
around VLA1 and VLA2. Torrelles et al. (2003) have found a shell of water masers around
the ultra-compact HII region VLA2 with a radius of 160 AU. The shell is expanding with a
velocity of 28 km s?1 , perhaps episodically as in a recurrent outflow. The high magnetic
field OH maser spots Z4-Z7 are located very close to VLA2, at a distance of 55 mas
(±40 mas), or at the projected distance of 110 AU (±80 AU). Therefore, the OH masers
may well be located in the same shell as the water masers. The magnetic field in water
masers associated with star-forming regions is typically around 100 mG, which is about
the same order of magnitude as in the OH maser flare reported here.

The appearance of new strong maser features and the simultaneous dimming of nearby
features can be interpreted as originating from the passage of a magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) shock (Alakoz et al. 2005). The shock was probably generated by the exciting
star of VLA2 and propagated in the gas of the stellar wind.


3. Conclusions
A very strong magnetic field of 40 mG has been detected in several OH masers spots
which have appeared during a flare of OH maser emission in 2000, within 110 AU from
the ultra-compact HII region. The magnetic field probably originates in the exciting star
where its intensity is about 500 G, or from the compression of interstellar gas by MHD
shock, or in icy planetary bodies serving as nuclei for the maser spot emission. More
frequent high angular resolution observations of future flares may help to distinguish
between these models.
References
Alakoz A. V., Slysh V. I., Popov M. V. & Val’tts I. E., 2005, Astron. Letters 31, 375
Fish V. L., Reid M. J., Argon A. L. & Zheng X.-W., 2005, ApJS 160, 220
Slysh V. I., Migenes V., Val’tts I. E., Lyubchenko S. Yu., Horiuchi S., Altunin V. I., Fomalont
E. B. & Inoue M., 2002, ApJ 564, 317
Torrelles J. M. et al., 2003, ApJL 598, L115
###

Is this proof of a local electrical circuit in an Electric Universe?

The appearance of new strong maser features and the simultaneous dimming of nearby
features can be interpreted as originating from the passage of a magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) shock (Alakoz et al. 2005). The shock was probably generated by the exciting
star of VLA2 and propagated in the gas of the stellar wind.

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Water masers within the G333.2–0.6 giant molecular cloud

Water masers within the G333.2–0.6 giant molecular cloud

Astrophysical Masers and their Environments Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 242, 2007


Abstract. We report the results of a blind search for 22 GHz water masers in two regions,
covering approximately half a square degree, within the G333.2–0.6 giant molecular cloud. The
complete search of the two regions was carried out with the 26 m Mount Pleasant radio telescope
and resulted in the detection of nine water masers, five of which are new detections. Australia
Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of these detections have allowed us to obtain
positions with arcsecond accuracy, allowing meaningful comparison with infrared and molecular
data for the region.We find that for the regions surveyed there are more water masers than either
6.7 GHz methanol, or main-line OH masers. The water masers are concentrated towards the
central axis of the star formation region, in contrast to the 6.7 GHz methanol masers which tend
to be located near the periphery. The colours of the GLIMPSE point sources associated with
the water masers are slightly less red than those associated with methanol masers. Statistical
investigation of the properties of the 13CO and 1.2 mm dust clumps with and without associated
water masers shows that the water masers are associated with the more massive, denser and
brighter 13CO and 1.2 mm dust clumps. We present statistical models that can predict those
13CO and 1.2 mm dust clumps likely to have associated water masers.


1. Introduction
The G333.2–0.6 giant molecular cloud (GMC) is located at a distance of 3.6 kpc
(Lockman 1979) and extends approximately 1.2 x 0.6 degrees on the sky. The GMC has
been the focus of numerous observations, including 1.2 mm dust continuum observations
by Mookerjea et al. (2004) who identified 95 dust clumps within the region. Observations
of 13CO by Bains et al. (2006) identified 61 13CO clumps within the GMC and showed
that the emission takes the form of a string of knots with the clumps arranged along an
axis aligned NW to SE. Complete surveys of the region have been carried out by Ellingsen
et al. (1996) for 6.7 GHz methanol masers and Caswell et al. (1980) for 1665 and 1667
MHz OH masers. These surveys resulted in the detection of four methanol and three
OH masers within the regions surveyed for water masers. Here we present the results
of an untargeted survey within two distinct regions of the G333.2–0.6 GMC which has
resulted in the detection of nine water masers, five of which are new detections. The two
regions surveyed cover over half a square degree and encompass much of the high density
gas and dust regions of the GMC. For greater detail of the observations and analysis see
Breen et al. (2007).


2. Discussion and conclusions

2.1. Association with other maser species and infrared sources
We find that within the regions surveyed there are more water than either methanol or
OH masers and that there are relatively few associations between the different maser
species. Comparison between the relative locations of the water masers and the 6.7 GHz
methanol masers shows that the water masers lie along the main axis of star formation
within the GMC while the methanol masers tend to be located near the periphery. Four
of the five newly discovered water masers have an associated GLIMPSE point source
and the four previously detected water masers are all projected against regions of bright
mid-infrared emission. Comparison of the (3.6)–(4.5) colours of the water maser associated
GLIMPSE point sources with those associated with methanol masers (Ellingsen 2006)
shows that the sources associated with the water masers are clustered toward the less
red end of the range observed in the methanol associated sources. This coupled with the
relative positions of the water and methanol masers within the GMC lends support to
the idea that methanol masers trace an earlier evolutionary phase than water masers.

2.2. 13CO and 1.2 mm dust clump analysis
We have investigated the properties of the 13CO (Bains et al. 2006) and the dust clumps
(Mookerjea et al. 2004) that are associated with water maser emission by fitting a Binomial
generalised linear model to the maser presence/absence data using the 13CO and
dust clump properties as predictors. This analysis has shown that in general water masers
are associated with bigger, brighter, more massive and denser 13CO and dust clumps.
Stepwise model selection based on the Akaike Information Criteria was used to select the
most parsimonious models with the greatest predictive properties for both the 13CO and
the dust clumps. The estimated regression relations for the 13CO and dust clumps are
(maths equations that can not be copied into here!)
respectively, where pi is the probability of maser presence in the ith clump and xintegrated,
xradius and xmass represent clump properties integrated flux density of the clump peak
(10 K km s?1 ), mass (103 M
) and radius (pc). These models have low misclassification
rates and allow the probability of maser presence within a given clump to be calculated,
enabling efficient targeted searches to be carried out where suitable data is available.

References
Bains, I., Wong, T., Cunningham, M., Sparks, P., Brisbin, D., Calisse, P., Dempsey, J. T.,
Deragopian, G., Ellingsen, S., Fulton, B., Herpin, B., Jones, P., Kouba, Y., Kramer, C.,
Ladd, E. F., Longmore, S. N., McEvoy, J., Maller, M., Minier, V., Mookerjea, B., Phillips,
C., Purcell, C. R., Walsh, A., Voronkov, M. A., Burton, M. G. 2006, MNRAS 367, 1609
Breen, S. L., Ellingsen, S. P, Johnston-Hollitt, M., Wotherspoon, S., Bains, I., Burton, M. G.,
Cunningham, M., Lo, N., Senkbeil, C. E., Wong, T. 2007 MNRAS in press
Caswell, J. L., Haynes, R. F., Goss, W.M 1980, Aust. J. Phys., 33, 639
Ellingsen, S. P., von Bibra, M. L., McCulloch, P. M., Norris, R. P., Deshpande, A. A., Phillips,
C. J. 1996, MNRAS 280, 378
Ellingsen, S. P. 2006, ApJ 638, 241
Lockman, F. J. 1979, ApJ 232, 761
Mookerjea, B., Kramer, C., Nielbock, M., Nyman, L. 2004, A & A 426, 119
Water masers within the G333.2–0.6 giant molecular cloud

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Giant cloud of space alcohol found

Giant cloud of space alcohol found
Scientists have discovered a giant cloud of methyl alcohol - spanning 288 billion miles - floating in space

The great bar in the sky. White areas represent the methanol maser spots

Astronomers hope that observations of this gas cloud - taken with the UK's MERLIN radio telescopes - could help our understanding of how the most massive stars in our galaxy are formed. However, all those hoping for a taste of the interstellar tipple will be disappointed.

Dr Harvey-Smith, principal investigator for the study, said: “Although it is exciting to discover a cloud of alcohol almost 300 billion miles across, unfortunately methanol, unlike its chemical cousin ethanol, is not suitable for human consumption!”

The team, based at Jodrell Bank Observatory, revealed that giant filaments of methanol gas that are emitting as 'masers' - the gas amplifies and emits beams of microwave radiation in much the same way as a laser emits beams of light.

“Our discovery is very interesting because it challenges some long-accepted views held in astronomical maser research. Until we found these filaments, we thought of masers as point-like objects or very small bright hotspots surrounded by halos of fainter emission,” said Dr Harvey-Smith.

The team studied an area called W3(OH), a region in our galaxy where stars are being formed by the gravitational collapse of a cloud of gas and dust.
Giant cloud of space alcohol found (spanning 288 billion miles) - labnews .co.uk

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Scientists tap into clouds of pure alcohol in outer space

SCIENTISTS TAP INTO CLOUDS OF PURE ALCOHOL IN OUTER SPACE

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Using data collected by researchers at Ohio State University, astronomers have found vast quantities of pure alcohol in an interstellar cloud some 10,000 light years from Earth.

Scientists said the cloud, located near the constellation Aquila, contains enough alcohol to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer.

The discovery was made during a study of how stars begin. Stars form from interstellar clouds, large conglomerations of gases and dust particles which can extend hundreds of light years across. Scientists have known for some time that the largest component of these clouds is hydrogen, but until now, they were not sure if ethyl alcohol molecules were also an ingredient.

"Over the course of the last 25 years or so, a number of molecules have been observed in space and scientists identify them by studying the frequencies of radiation they emit," said Eric Herbst, a professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio State. Herbst and Frank De Lucia, professor and chair of the physics department, authored a study on the specific radio frequencies of

ethyl alcohol.

Ethyl alcohol can only be observed in its gaseous phase. To observe the frequencies of ethanol, De Lucia and Herbst used a laboratory microwave spectrometer developed by De Lucia, a tabletop apparatus that shoots waves of radiation through a gaseous molecular sample. The molecule absorbs the radiation at selected radio frequencies, which are identical with the frequencies emitted by the molecules in space. A detector on the spectrometer records the frequencies for study.

On a visit to Ohio State, Tom Millar, an astronomer from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in England, discovered the research done by Herbst and De Lucia and used it in his study of star formation.

"It seems the ethanol molecule is found in relatively high concentrations in regions where stars are forming," Herbst said. "The current thought is that ethanol is formed on the surface of tiny sand-like particles in interstellar clouds. The heat from the star that is forming transforms the molecule to a gas and we are able to observe it."

Millar, along with Geoff Macdonald and Rolf Habing of the University of Kent in England, found 350 spectral lines emitted from molecules in an interstellar cloud. About 70 of these lines could not be matched to any molecule until Millar found out about the work done by Herbst and De Lucia.

"By studying these frequencies, the astronomers were able to learn more than just what molecule was there," Herbst said. "They were able to get information about the cloud's environment, such as temperature and density, by studying the intensity of the frequencies."

The research suggests that ethanol can be found in other interstellar clouds in which stars are forming, Herbst said.

The research by Herbst and De Lucia was published in the April issue of the Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data
Scientists tap into clouds of pure alcohol in outer space - researchnews.osu.edu