2003/11/10 by Felix J. Lockman, Lockman, Felix J.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0311217
6 pages include 3 figures. To be published in "Recycling Intergalactic and Interstellar Matter", IAU Symp. 217, ed. P-A Duc, J. Braine and E. Brinks
arxiv created 2003/11/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
New 21cm observations with the Green Bank Telescope show that a significant fraction of the HI in the inner Galaxy's halo 1 kpc from the midplane exists in the form of discrete clouds. Some look very much like a Spitzer ``standard'' diffuse cloud but with their HI in two phases. They mark the transition between the neutral disk and the highly ionized halo. The dominant motion of the clouds is Galactic rotation, but some have random velocities of as much as 50 km/s. They are part of the Galaxy and are not related to high-velocity clouds, yet their origin is obscure.