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The structure of molecular clouds - I. All-sky near-infrared extinction maps

Rowles, Jonathan, Froebrich, Dirk (2009) The structure of molecular clouds - I. All-sky near-infrared extinction maps. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 395 (3). pp. 1640-1648. ISSN 1365-2966. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14655.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:40498)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14655.x

Abstract

We are studying the column density distribution of all nearby giant molecular clouds. As part of this project, we generated several all-sky extinction maps. They are calculated using the median near-infrared colour excess technique applied to data from the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey. Our large-scale approach allows us to fit spline functions to extinction-free regions in order to accurately determine the colour excess values. Two types of maps are presented: (i) maps with a constant noise and variable spatial resolution and (ii) maps with a constant spatial resolution and variable noise. Our standardAV map uses the nearest 49 stars to the centre of each pixel for the determination of the extinction. The 1? variance is constant at 0.28 mag AV in the entire map. The distance to the 49th nearest star varies from below 1 arcmin near the Galactic plane to about 10 arcmin at the poles, but is below 5 arcmin for all giant molecular clouds (|b| < 30°). A comparison with existing large-scale maps shows that our extinction values are systematically larger by 20 per cent compared to Dobashi et al. and 40 per cent smaller compared to Schlegel et al. This is most likely caused by the applied star counting technique in Dobashi et al. and systematic uncertainties in the dust temperature and emissivity in Schlegel et al. Our superior resolution allows us to detect more small-scale high-extinction cores as compared to the other two maps.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14655.x
Additional information: number of additional authors: 1;
Uncontrolled keywords: stars: formation, ISM: clouds, dust, extinction, ISM: molecules
Subjects: Q Science
Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Stewart Brownrigg
Date Deposited: 07 Mar 2014 00:05 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:15 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/40498 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Froebrich, Dirk.

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