THE NATURE OF THE MOLECULAR LINE WING EMISSION IN THE ROSETTE MOLECULAR-COMPLEX

We present (CO)-C-12 and (CO)-C-13 J = 3 --> 2 and J = 2 --> 1 observa tions of the Rosette Molecular Complex. The observations show that bro ad line wings, originally observed in CO J = 1 --> 0, also exist in th e higher J lines in high signal-to-noise ratio spectra toward individu al positions and in positionally averaged spectra. We show that the wi ng emission can be explained by the superposition of individual high- and low-velocity clumps, some of which are spatially resolved at high angular resolution, and at least two embedded outflow sources. Our res ults call in question an earlier interpretation of this weak line wing emission as originating from a low-density, ubiquitous, molecular int erclump gas. A multiline analysis implies that the wing emission origi nates in gas with densities comparable to the density of the bulk emis sion, We note that the physical conditions derived from this relativel y simple single-component excitation analysis do not give a fully cons istent picture of these clumps, leaving any conclusion on their dynami cal state and evolution rather speculative.