• What is HEXOS?
  • Team Members
• Observational Program
  • Main Goals
  • Observations & Sub Programs
    • Orion KL HIFI/PACS
    • Orion S HIFI/PACS
    • Orion Bar Program
    • Sgr B2 (N) HIFI/PACS
    • Sgr B2 (M) HIFI/PACS
    • Orion Water Mapping
    • Polarization
    • Searching for Deep Molecules
    • Searching for Large Molecules
• Publications & Presentations
• Detected Far-Infrared Lines
• Data Reduction Resources
• HEXOS Wiki
• Get HEXOS Data

What is HEXOS?

HEXOS will use the Herschel/HIFI and PACS instruments to perform full line surveys of 5 sources in the Orion and Sagittarius B2 molecular clouds. These two sources contain the best-studied examples of physical and chemical processes that are prevalent in the interstellar space and associated with the birth of massive stars and stellar clusters. This includes exploring the physical and chemical conditions that exist in gas in close proximity to massive stars that is heating and exposed to energetic dynamical events caused by the tremendous release of energy by the star. In addition, we will be sensitive to ambient gas that is directly exposed to radiation from previous generations of star formation. Herschel offers unprecedented sensitivity and near continuous spectral coverage across the gaps imposed by the atmosphere.

This will open up a largely unexplored wavelength regime to high-resolution spectroscopy. Given that these sources have the richest emission spectra seen for star-forming regions in the Galaxy, we anticipate that the proposed observations will define the sub-millimeter/far infrared region of the spectrum and that these data will form a lasting Herschel legacy. Our expectation is that we will significantly extend the list of species that have been detected in interstellar space. In all we aim characterize and understand the full extent of the organic chemistry associated with stellar birth and inform studies that explore the creation and supply of key organics to forming Earths. These defining observations are simply not possible from ground-based observatories, and will be useful for future far-infrared observations in our Galaxy and beyond.

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