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BENJAMIN J. MCCALL, Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637; KENNETH H. HINKLE, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, AZ 85726; THOMAS R. GEBALLE, Joint Astronomy Centre, Hilo, HI 96720; TAKESHI OKA, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637.
The long awaited initial detection \!\! of \hhh in the interstellar medium provides unprecedented opportunites to directly characterize the physical and chemical properties of dense molecular clouds near young stellar objects. Recent observations in the 3.7 µm region using the CGS4 infrared spectrometer at the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and the high-resolution Phoenix spectometer at the Kitt Peak National Observatory support the initial detection of \hhh and extend the use of \hhh as a chemical probe of the interstellar medium to other molecular clouds. The interstellar material towards many winter objects --- GL961E, MonR2~IRS~2 and IRS~3, GL490, GL989, NGC2024~IRS~2, LkH\alpha~101, W3~IRS~5, and Orion~BN --- have been searched in the spectral region of \hhh, providing both positive (detection) and negative (upper limit) results. In addition, the data from the initial detection of \hhh in the summer objects GL2136 and W33A have been reprocessed to improve the resolution of the spectral lines.