Interferometric study of SgrB2(N)

The simplest amino acid, glycine (NH2CH2COOH), has long been searched for in the interstellar medium but has not been unambiguously detected so far. At the same time, more and more complex molecules have been newly found toward the prolific Galactic center source Sagittarius B2.

Since the search for glycine has turned out to be extremely difficult, we aimed at detecting a chemically related species (possibly a direct precursor), amino acetonitrile (NH_2_CH_2_CN). With the IRAM 30m telescope we carried out a complete line survey of the hot core regions Sgr B2(N) and (M) in the 3mm range, plus partial surveys at 2 and 1.3mm. We analyzed our 30m line survey in the LTE approximation and modeled the emission of all known molecules simultaneously.