hot corino

English

Etymology

Coined in 2004 (see quote below) from hot core, to differentiate the core of low-mass from high-mass protostars. Compare Italian -ino (“diminutive”).

Noun

hot corino (plural hot corinos)

1. (astronomy) The warm, dense inner region of the envelope of young stellar objects where complex organic molecules are located.
   • 2004, S[andrine]. Bottinelli, C[ecilia]. Ceccarelli, B. Lefloch, J.P. Williams, A. Castets, E. Caux, S. Cazaux, S. Maret, B. Parise, A.G.G.M. Tielens, “Complex molecules in the hot core of the low-mass protostar NGC 1333 IRAS 4A”, in The Astrophysical Journal, →DOI, page 354:

     The definition of “hot core” used for massive protostars implies the presence of a relatively large amount of warm and dense gas […] In order to make clear that hot cores of low- and high-mass protostars are, however, substantially different in the amount of material involved, we use hereafter the term “hot corino” to identify the warm inner regions of the envelope surrounding the low-mass protostars.

   • 2006, Cecilia Ceccarelli, quoting Jonathan Rawlings, “Observations of low-mass protostars: Cold envelopes and hot corinos”, in Dariusz C. Lis, Geoffrey A. Blake, Eric Herbst, editors, Astrochemistry: Recent successes and current challenges, page 14:

     Discussion
     Rawlings: Concerning the so-called “hot corinos”: these objects are barely resolvable, so what evidence is there that they are the low-mass analogues of hot cores, rather than – say – outflow interfaces?

   • 2008, Sandrine Bottinelli, Cecilia Ceccarelli, Roberto Neri, Jonathan P. Williams, “High-resolution observations of CH₃CN in the hot corino of NGC1333-IRAS4A”, in Sun Kwok, Scott Sandford, editors, Proceedings of the 251^st Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, page 117:

     […] it is necessary to perform interferometric observations which allow us to resolve the hot corino, that is the warm, dense inner region of the envelope of a Class 0 object, where the complex organic molecules are located.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:hot corino.