Tiny HI Clouds in the Local ISM
Astrophysics
2015-11-11 v1
Abstract
Very sensitive HI absorption spectra (tau RMS about 10^-4 over 1 km/s) toward high latitude QSOs have revealed a population of tiny discrete features in the diffuse ISM with peak tau of 0.1 - 2% and core line-widths corresponding to temperatures as low as 20 K. Imaging detections confirm linear dimensions of a few 1000 AU. We suggest these structures may be formed by the stellar winds of intermediate mass stars. A more speculative origin might involve molecular "dark matter".
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0409427,
title = {Tiny HI Clouds in the Local ISM},
author = {Robert Braun and Nissim Kanekar},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0409427},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages, 8 figures, to appear in "The IMF at 50", eds. E. Corbelli, F. Palla, and H. Zinnecker, ASSL (Kluwer)