Far-Infrared CO Rotational Lines in the Orion Molecular Cloud

We present a high signal-to-noise grating spectrum between 43-196.9 μm of the Orion molecular cloud towards the massive star-forming region IRc2, obtained with the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). CO lines up to J=20-19 have been detected around Orion-IRc2, while in the central position higher quantum numbers have been found. Lines of the ¹³CO isotopic species have also been observed in several directions. In addition, high quality LWS-FP observations of some CO lines have been performed towards IRc2. The data analysis suggest that at least two regions of Orion-IRc2 contribute to the observed CO emission: the ridge, responsible of the spatial extension, and the plateau, dominating the line flux observed towards the center of the map. CO emission through the Orion molecular cloud has been studied in terms of temperature, column density and H₂ volume density, using and Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) model. We find that the flux ratio of the several CO lines can not be explained in terms of an homogeneous source, but a gradient in temperature and density must be involved. Besides the CO lines, several molecular and fine-structure atomic lines have been detected in all observed positions. A detailed discussion of other molecular species rather than CO (H2O, OH...) can be found in the contribution by Cernicharo et al (1998). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.