Detection of abundant solid methanol toward young low mass stars

We present detections of the absorption band at 3.53 μm due to solid methanol toward three low-mass young stellar objects located in the Serpens and Chameleon molecular cloud complexes. The sources were observed as part of a large spectroscopic survey of ≈40 protostars. This is the first detection of solid methanol in the vicinity of low mass (M <∼ 1 M ) young stars and shows that the formation of methanol does not depend on the proximity of massive young stars. The abundances of solid methanol compared to water ice for the three sources are in the range 15–25% which is comparable to those for the most methanol-rich massive sources known. The presence of abundant methanol in the circumstellar environment of some low mass young stars has important consequences for the formation scenarios of methanol and more complex organic species near young solar-type stars.