A SEARCH FOR OH-EMISSION FROM IRAS SOURCES AT HIGH GALACTIC LATITUDES

A survey of high galactic latitude IRAS point sources with colours typ ical for ultracompact HII regions was carried out in the main lines of OH. Amongst 70 IRAS sources surveyed, one new OH maser emitting only in the 1667 MHz main line was discovered and 6 weaker candidate masers were found. It is proposed that the masers with dominant 1667 MHz emi ssion are separate from the common main line Class I OH masers emittin g mostly at 1665 MHz. The Class I masers could be divided into subclas ses Ia and Ib for 1665 and 1667 MHz emitting sources respectively. A c orrelation between infrared and OH line emission fluxes is confirmed b y a lower detection rate of the present survey as compared to the surv ey of stronger IRAS sources. More than one half of the detected source s show thermal OH emission and are probably associated with nearby dus t clouds.