A Survey of Acetic Acid toward Hot Molecular Cores

We have surveyed 12 Galactic hot molecular cores for interstellar acetic acid (CH 3 COOH). This is the most extensive search for acetic acid to date. We have detected a new source of acetic acid toward the high-mass hot molecular core source G34.3+0.2. Using a temperature range between 70 and 185 K, we find a CH 3 COOH column density range of (0.77-1.64) × 10 15 cm -2 toward G34.3+0.2. This gives a relative CH 3 COOH/HCOOCH 3 abundance ratio of ~3.3 × 10 -2 , which is comparable to the abundance ratio of (3-6) × 10 -2 found toward Sgr B2(N-LMH) and W51e2 by Remijan and colleagues. All currently known acetic acid sources are within 7 kpc of the Galactic center. Furthermore, our survey suggests that hot molecular cores that have a mass range between 200 and 2000 M ☉ and do not show a distinct differentiation between O and N chemistry may be the best places to search for acetic acid and the structurally similar biologically important molecule glycine.