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SOFT X-RAY IRRADIATION OF PURE CARBON MONOXIDE INTERSTELLAR ICE ANALOGUES

There is an increasing evidence for the existence of large organic molecules in the interstellar and circumstellar medium. Very few among such species are readily formed in conventional gas-phase chemistry under typical conditions of interstellar clouds. Attention has therefore focused on interstellar ices as a potential source of these relatively complex species. Laboratory experiments show that irradiation of interstellar ice analogues by fast particles or ultraviolet radiation can induce significant chemical complexity. However, stars are sources of intense X-rays at almost every stage of their formation and evolution. Such radiation may thus provide chemical changes in regions where ultraviolet radiation is severely inhibited. After H2O, CO is often the most abundant component of icy grain mantles in dense interstellar clouds and circumstellar disks. In this work we present irradiation of a pure carbon monoxide ice using a soft X-ray spectrum peaked at 0.3 keV. Analysis of irradiated samples shows formation of CO2, C2O, C3O2, C3, C4O, and CO3/C5. Comparison of X-rays and ultraviolet irradiation experiments, of the same energy dose, shows that X-rays are more efficient than ultraviolet radiation in producing new species. With the exception of CO2, X-ray photolysis induces formation of a larger number of products with higher abundances, e.g., C3O2 column density is about one order of magnitude higher in the X-ray experiment. To our knowledge this is the first report on X-ray photolysis of CO ices. The present results show that X-ray irradiation represents an efficient photo-chemical way to convert simple ices to more complex species.