UWISH2 -- The UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for H2
Abstract
We present the goals and preliminary results of an unbiased, near-infrared, narrow-band imaging survey of the First Galactic Quadrant (10deg<l<65deg ; -1.3deg<b<+1.3deg). This area includes most of the Giant Molecular Clouds and massive star forming regions in the northern hemisphere. The survey is centred on the 1-0S(1) ro-vibrational line of H2, a proven tracer of hot, dense molecular gas in star-forming regions, around evolved stars, and in supernova remnants. The observations complement existing and upcoming photometric surveys (Spitzer-GLIMPSE, UKIDSS-GPS, JCMT-JPS, AKARI, Herschel Hi-GAL, etc.), though we probe a dynamically active component of star formation not covered by these broad-band surveys. Our narrow-band survey is currently more than 60% complete. The median seeing in our images is 0.73arcsec. The images have a 5sigma detection limit of point sources of K=18mag and the surface brightness limit is 10^-19Wm^-2arcsec^-2 when averaged over our typical seeing. Jets and outflows from both low and high mass Young Stellar Objects are revealed, as are new Planetary Nebulae and - via a comparison with earlier K-band observations acquired as part of the UKIDSS GPS - numerous variable stars. With their superior spatial resolution, the UWISH2 data also have the potential to reveal the true nature of many of the Extended Green Objects found in the GLIMPSE survey.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1012.0782,
title = {UWISH2 -- The UKIRT Widefield Infrared Survey for H2},
author = {D. and Froebrich and C. J. and Davis and G. and Ioannidis and T. M. and Gledhill and M. and Takami and A. and Chrysostomou and J. and Drew and J. and Eislöffel and A. and Gosling and R. and Gredel and J. and Hatchell and K. W. and Hodapp and M. S. N. and Kumar and P. W. and Lucas and H. and Matthews and M. G. and Rawlings and M. D. and Smith and B. and Stecklum and W. P. and Varricatt and H. T. and Lee and P. S. and Teixeira and C. A. and Aspin and T. and Khanzadyan and J. and Karr and H. -J. and Kim and B. -C. and Koo and J. J. and Lee and Y. -H. and Lee and T. Y. and Magakian and T. A. and Movsessian and E. H. and Nikogossian and T. S. and Pyo and T. and Stanke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.0782},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
14pages, 8figures, 2tables, accepted for publication by MNRAS, a version with higher resolution figures can be found at http://astro.kent.ac.uk/~df/