2000/05/05 by C. M. Dutra, Carlos Maximiliano Dutra, E. Bica +2
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Space Exploration and Technology #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0005108
manuscript in LATEX with 14 pages, 8 figures .ps Accepted for Astronomy and Astrophysics main journal on 13.04.2000
arxiv created 2000/05/05 · openalex publication_date 2000/05/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper compares reddening values E(B-V) derived from the stellar content of 103 old open clusters and 147 globular clusters of the Milky Way with those derived from DIRBE/IRAS 100 micron dust emission in the same directions. Star clusters at |b|> 20 show comparable reddening values between the two methods, in agreement with the fact that most of them are located beyond the disk dust layer. For very low galactic latitude lines of sight, differences occur in the sense that DIRBE/IRAS reddening values can be substantially larger, suggesting effects due to the depth distribution of the dust. The differences appear to arise from dust in the background of the clusters consistent with a dust layer where important extinction occurs up to distances from the Plane of ~ 300 pc. For 3 % of the sample a significant background dust contribution might be explained by higher dust clouds. We find evidence that the Milky Way dust lane and higher dust clouds are similar to those of several edge-on spiral galaxies recently studied in detail by means of CCD imaging.