A Sensitive Study of CH in Interstellar Molecular Cloud MBM 40

Much of the molecular gas in the universe has been thought to be "dark molecular gas" and undetectable to observations. Recent studies have shown that more sensitive surveys of molecular gas may be able to detect some of the "dark molecular gas", particularly in interstellar molecular clouds. A sensitive study of CH in MBM 40 was developed using Arecibo telescope data of the CH 3335 MHz transition emission line in MBM 40 to trace the lowest-density molecular component. The results indicate a mass of 43.60 ± 19.39 Solar masses which is significantly higher than previous results. This shows that sensitive CH observations can detect at least some of the recently identified "dark molecular gas".