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Reddening and the Extinction Law at High Galactic Latitude
We present near-infrared (JHKL) photometry of 103 southern stars locatedbehind translucent interstellar clouds at high Galactic latitude. Ourdata are combined with visual photometry and spectral type informationfrom the literature in a detailed analysis of the wavelength dependenceof interstellar extinction by dust in these high-latitude clouds. Weinvestigate the shape of the near-infrared extinction curve and evaluatethe total line-of-sight extinction (AV) and ratio oftotal-to-selective extinction (RV) in each line of sight.Sources of uncertainty in RV arising from photometric errorsand spectral classification errors are carefully assessed and quantifiedas functions of the line-of-sight reddening. We detect appreciabledifferences in our results compared with the average extinction curvefor dust in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) close to the Galacticplane. Assuming a power-law form in the near-infrared, we find the meanfor high-latitude clouds to be well described by~λ-2.3, somewhat steeperthan that for the diffuse ISM(~λ-1.8). Our sampleincludes a substantial number of lines of sight with low RVvalues (47% with RV<2.8) relative to the diffuse ISMaverage of 3.05+/-0.15. We conclude that many high-latitude clouds haveenhanced abundances of relatively small grains.
| 3D mapping of the dense interstellar gas around the Local Bubble
We present intermediate results from a long-term program of mapping theneutral absorption characteristics of the local interstellar medium,motivated by the availability of accurate and consistent parallaxes fromthe Hipparcos satellite. Equivalent widths of the interstellar NaID-line doublet at 5890 Å are presented for the lines-of-sighttowards some 311 new target stars lying within ~ 350 pc of the Sun.Using these data, together with NaI absorption measurements towards afurther ~ 240 nearby targets published in the literature (for many ofthem, in the directions of molecular clouds), and the ~ 450lines-of-sight already presented by (Sfeir et al. \cite{sfeir99}), weshow 3D absorption maps of the local distribution of neutral gas towards1005 sight-lines with Hipparcos distances as viewed from a variety ofdifferent galactic projections.The data are synthesized by means of two complementary methods, (i) bymapping of iso-equivalent width contours, and (ii) by densitydistribution calculation from the inversion of column-densities, amethod devised by Vergely et al. (\cite{vergely01}). Our present dataconfirms the view that the local cavity is deficient in cold and neutralinterstellar gas. The closest dense and cold gas ``wall'', in the firstquadrant, is at ~ 55-60 pc. There are a few isolated clouds at closerdistance, if the detected absorption is not produced by circumstellarmaterial.The maps reveal narrow or wide ``interstellar tunnels'' which connectthe Local Bubble to surrounding cavities, as predicted by the model ofCox & Smith (1974). In particular, one of these tunnels, defined bystars at 300 to 600 pc from the Sun showing negligible sodiumabsorption, connects the well known CMa void (Gry et al. \cite{gry85}),which is part of the Local Bubble, with the supershell GSH 238+00+09(Heiles \cite{heiles98}). High latitude lines-of-sight with the smallestabsorption are found in two ``chimneys'', whose directions areperpendicular to the Gould belt plane. The maps show that the LocalBubble is ``squeezed'' by surrounding shells in a complicated patternand suggest that its pressure is smaller than in those expandingregions.We discuss the locations of several HI and molecular clouds. Usingcomparisons between NaI and HI or CO velocities, in some cases we areable to improve the constraints on their distances. According to thevelocity criteria, MBM 33-37, MBM 16-18, UT 3-7, and MBM 54-55 arecloser than ~ 100 pc, and MBM 40 is closer than 80 pc. Dense HI cloudsare seen at less than 90 pc and 85 pc in the directions of the MBM 12and MBM 41-43 clouds respectively, but the molecular clouds themselvesmay be far beyond. The above closest molecular clouds are located at theneutral boundary of the Bubble. Only one translucent cloud, G192-67, isclearly embedded within the LB and well isolated.These maps of the distribution of local neutral interstellar NaI gas arealso briefly compared with the distribution of both interstellar dustand neutral HI gas within 300 pc.Tables 1 and 2 are only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp:cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/411/447
| Photometric and spectroscopic analysis of high galactic latitude molecular clouds. II - High-resolution spectroscopic observations of NA I, CA II, CA I, CH, and CH(+1)
High-resolution spectroscopic observations in the wavelengths of thespecies Na I, Ca II, and Ca I and the molecular species CH and CH(+)have been performed toward stars behind a variety of high galacticlatitude molecular clouds (HLCs). Seventeen new detections of molecularabsorption are reported. The sizes, densities, and molecular contentfound for the HLCs are consistent with an interpretation of HLCmolecular cores as extremely compact structures of enhanced molecularcontent which may have evolved from larger H I shells.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Serpens |
| Right ascension: | 15h43m58.91s |
| Declination: | +07°36'19.3" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 8.32 |
| Distance: | 322.581 parsecs |
| Proper motion RA: | 25.6 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -13.3 |
| B-T magnitude: | 8.452 |
| V-T magnitude: | 8.331 |
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