B. Tercero, I. Kleiner, J. Cernicharo, H. V. L. Nguyen, A. López, and G. M. Muñoz Caro
recently reported on the
Discovery of Methyl Acetate and Gauche Ethyl Formate in Orion
Astrophys. J. 770, (2013) Art. No. L13.
The detection was made in the course of a molecular line survey carried out with the IRAM 30 m radio telescope. At a rotational temperature of about 150 K, very many transitions of methyl acetate have non-negligible intensities. However, many of them are blended severely with emissions of other molecules. Nevertheless, a considerable number of transitions are not or only slightly blended, such that its detection can be considered secure in spite of many still unassigned lines. Its column density is about a factor of five higher than that derived for ethyl formate in this source.

Methyl acetate is the third ester and the first acetate to be detected in the ISM after methyl formate and ethyl formate. It is an isomer of ethyl formate.

Contributor(s): H. S. P. Müller; 07, 2013