CLAWS: Faint CO isotopologues in galaxy M51
The CO isotopologue Line Atlas of the Whirpool Galaxy (CLAWS) is an IRAM-30 m large program, wide-area, multi-line mapping survey. The project targeted several CO isotopologue lines in the 1 mm and 3 mm windows across the full disk of the nearby spiral galaxy M51. We obtained observations at an angular resolution of 15-30" at 230 GHz and 110 GHz, which translates to 0.5-1.5 kpc spatial scales. The PI of the project are Kazimerz SLowa and Toshiki Saito, but I currently leading the analyis of the data products together with Prof. Frank Bigiel at the university of Bonn.
The survey targeted important CO isotopologue rotational lines, such as C18O(1-0), 13CO(1-0), and C17O(1-0) at 3 mm and C18O(2-1), 13CO(2-1), and 12CO(2-1) at 1mm. In combination with the wealth of ancillary datasets, we can investigate key physical and chemical processes that shape the molecular ISM.
Since we obtain optically thin emission lines with 13CO or C18O, we can potentially derive key gas parameters such as, for example, the abundances. This opens a window to the enrichment of the ISM in galaxies, since different chemical and physical processes are responsible for the enrichment of different CO isotopologues.