2003/11/04 by Kenneth R. Sembach, Sembach, Kenneth R.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0311089
14 pages, includes 5 figures and cupconf.cls style file. To be published in the proceedings of the 2003 STScI May Symposium "The Local Group as an Astrophysical Laboratory"
arxiv created 2003/11/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
There is increasing observational evidence that hot, highly ionized interstellar and intergalactic gas plays a significant role in the evolution of galaxies in the local universe. The primary spectral diagnostics of the warm-hot interstellar/intergalactic medium are ultraviolet and X-ray absorption lines of O VI and O VII. In this paper, I summarize some of the recent highlights of spectroscopic studies of hot gas in the Local Group and low-redshift universe. These highlights include investigations of the baryonic content of low-z O VI absorbers,evidence for a hot Galactic corona or Local Group medium, and the discovery of a highly ionized high velocity cloud system around the Milky Way.