Detection of interstellar hydrogen peroxide

Context. The molecular species hydrogen peroxide, HOOH, is likely to be a key ingredient in the oxygen and water chemistry in the interstellar medium. Aims. Our aim with this investigation is to determine how abundant HOOH is in the cloud core rho Oph A. Methods. By observing several transitions of HOOH in the (sub)millimeter regime we seek to identify the molecule and also to determine the excitation conditions through a multilevel excitation analysis. Results. We have detected three spectral lines toward the SM1 position of rho Oph A at velocity-corrected frequencies that coincide very closely with those measured from laboratory spectroscopy of HOOH. A fourth line was detected at the 4 sigma level. We also found through mapping observations that the HOOH emission extends (about 0.05 pc) over the densest part of the rho Oph A cloud core. We derive an abundance of HOOH relative to that of H-2 in the SM1 core of about 1 x 10(-10). Conclusions. To our knowledge, this is the first reported detection of HOOH in the interstellar medium.