The Distribution of Interstellar Dust in the Solar Neighborhood

We surveyed the IRAS data base at the positions of the 1808 O6-B9.5 stars in The Bright Star Catalog for extended objects with excess emission at 60 μm, indicating the presence of interstellar dust at the location of the star. Within 400 pc the filling factor of the interstellar medium for dust clou...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1993-10, Vol.105 (692), p.1127-1140
Main Authors: Gaustad, John E., Van Buren, Dave
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomical objects
Astronomy
Bright stars
Cosmic dust
Density
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Flux density
Interstellar dust
Interstellar dust grains
diffuse emission
infrared cirrus
Interstellar medium
Interstellar medium (ism) and nebulae in milky way
Stars
Stellar classification
Stellar systems. Galactic and extragalactic objects and systems. The universe
Wavelengths
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We surveyed the IRAS data base at the positions of the 1808 O6-B9.5 stars in The Bright Star Catalog for extended objects with excess emission at 60 μm, indicating the presence of interstellar dust at the location of the star. Within 400 pc the filling factor of the interstellar medium for dust clouds with a density > 0.5 cm⁻ɸ is 14.6 ± 2.4%. Above a density of 1.0 cm⁻³ , the density distribution function appears to follow a power law of index — 1.25. When the dust clouds are mapped onto the galactic plane, the sun appears to be located in a low-density region of the interstellar medium of width about 60 pc extending at least 500 pc in the direction of longitudes 80°-260° , a feature we call the "local trough."
ISSN:0004-6280
1538-3873
DOI:10.1086/133291