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                              G C N E W S
                             * Newsflash *

            - The Newsletter for Galactic Center Research -

gcnews@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de             http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/gcnews
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Vol. 12, No. 21                                              Dec 12, 2000

Dear subscriber,

GCNEWS experienced some email problems during the last two weeks. This
was apparently a consequence of installing a new hard disk (an obvious
consequence, isn't it?). In any case, this problem is apparently fixed
now. If some of your emails were returned recently, please try again.

The GCNEWS Team

P.S.: The next volume of GCNEWS is in preparation right now. If you
have any announcements, please send them to us quickly.

Recently submitted papers:
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1) Large scale grain mantle disruption in the Galactic Center 
   (Martin-Pintado et al., ApjL)
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Email    : vicente@oan.es
Title    : Large scale grain mantle disruption in the Galactic Center
Author(s): J. Martin-Pintado(1), J. R. Rizzo(1), P. de Vicente(1), N. 
           J. Rodriguez-Fernandez(1) and A. Fuente(1)
Institute: Observatorio Astronomico Nacional, Apartado 1143, E-28800 
           Alcala de Henares, Spain
Paper    : ApjL 2001, in press
Weblink  : http://www.oan.es/preprints/oan00-23.pdf
EPrint   : astro-ph/0011512

Abstract:
We present observations of C2H5OH toward molecular clouds in Sgr A, Sgr 
B2 and associated with thermal and non-thermal features in the Galactic 
center. C2H5OH emission in Sgr A and Sgr B2 is widespread, but not 
uniform. C2H5OH emission is much weaker or it is not detected in some 
molecular clouds in both complexes, in particular those with radial 
velocities between 70 and 120 km/s. While most of the clouds associated 
with the thermal features do not show C2H5OH emission, that associated 
with the Non-Thermal Radio Arc shows emission. and The fractional 
abundance of C2H5OH in most of the clouds with radial velocities 
between 0 and 70 km/s in Sgr A and Sgr B2 is relatively high, of few 
10^-8. The C2H5OH abundance decreases by more than one order of 
magnitude (\lsim 10^-9) in the clouds associated with the thermal 
features. The large abundance of C2H5OH in the gas-phase indicates that 
C2H5OH has formed in grains and released to gas-phase by shocks in the 
last 10^5 years. in The implications of this finding in the origin of 
the shocks in the GC is briefly discussed.
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			       Edited by
    Angela Cotera                       Heino Falcke & Sera Markoff
(cotera@as.arizona.edu)             (hfalcke,smarkoff@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de) 
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