2008/07/09 by M. Lombardi, Marco Lombardi, C. J. Lada +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Extinction (optical mineralogy) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Molecular cloud #Ophiuchus #Optics #Physics #Sky #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:200810070
16 pages, A&A in press
openalex publication_date 2008/07/09 · arxiv created 2008/09/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2022/10/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present an extinction map of a ~1700 deg sq region that encloses the Ophiuchus, the Lupus, and the Pipe dark complexes using 42 million stars from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) point source catalog. The use of a robust and optimal near-infrared method to map dust column density (nicer, described in Lombardi & Alves 2001, A&A, 377, 1023) allow us to detect extinction as low as AK = 0.05 mag with a 2-σ significance, and still to have a resolution of 3 arcmin on our map. We also present a novel, statistically sound method to characterize the small-scale inhomogeneities in molecular clouds. Finally, we investigate the cloud structure function, and show that significant deviations from the results predicted by turbulent models are observed.