Related papers: NICEST, a near-infrared color excess method tailor…
Extinction remains one of the most reliable methods of measuring column density of nearby Galactic interstellar clouds. The current and ongoing near-infrared surveys enable the mapping of extinction over large sky areas. We produce allsky…
We generalize the technique of Lada et al. (1994) to map dust column density through a molecular cloud (NICE) to an optimized multi-band technique (NICER) that can be applied to any multi-band survey of molecular clouds. We present a first…
We are studying the column density distribution of all nearby giant molecular clouds. As part of this project we generated several all sky extinction maps. They are calculated using the median near infrared colour excess technique applied…
In this paper we present XNICER, an optimized multi-band extinction technique based on the extreme deconvolution of the intrinsic colors of objects observed through a molecular cloud. XNICER follows a rigorous statistical approach and…
Several methods exist to convert near-infrared (NIR) stellar observations into extinction maps. We present a new method based on NIR multiband observations. The method uses a discretised version of the distribution of intrinsic stellar…
The near infrared extinction powerlaw index ($\beta$) and its uncertainty is derived from three different techniques based on star counts, colour excess and a combination of them. We have applied these methods to 2MASS data to determine…
Dust extinction is the most robust tracer of the gas distribution in the interstellar medium, but measuring extinction is limited by the systematic uncertainties involved in estimating the intrinsic colors to background stars. In this paper…
We propose a general method for mapping the extinction in dense molecular clouds using 2MASS near-infrared data. The technique is based on the simultaneous utilization of star counts and colors. These two techniques provide independent…
Context. The properties of dust grains, in particular their size distribution, are expected to differ from the interstellar medium to the high-density regions within molecular clouds. Since the extinction at near-infrared wavelengths is…
The Milky Way (MW) remains a primary laboratory for understanding the structure and evolution of spiral galaxies, but typically we are denied clear views of MW stellar populations at low Galactic latitudes because of extinction by…
(Abridged) We use 8 micron Spitzer GLIMPSE images to make extinction maps of 10 IRDCs, selected to be relatively nearby and massive. The extinction mapping technique requires modeling the IR background intensity behind the cloud, which is…
With current wide-field near-infrared (NIR) instruments the scattered light in the near-infrared can be mapped over large areas. Below A_V ~ 10 the surface brightness is directly proportional to the column density, and at slightly higher…
Context: Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) harbor progenitors of high-mass stars. Little is known of the parental molecular clouds of the IRDCs. Aims: We demonstrate the feasibility of the near-infrared (NIR) dust extinction mapping in tracing…
Progress in understanding star formation requires detailed observational constraints on the initial conditions, i.e. dense clumps and cores in giant molecular clouds that are on the verge of gravitational instability. Such structures have…
Dust plays a critical role in the study of the interstellar medium (ISM). Extinction maps derived from optical surveys often fail to capture regions with high column density due to the limited photometric depth in optical wavelengths. To…
We present an extinction map of the inner $\sim$\SI{15}{\arcminute} by {16}{\arcminute} of the Galactic Center (GC) with map `pixels' measuring \SI{5}{\arcsecond} $\times$ \SI{5}{\arcsecond} using integrated light color measurements in the…
We present an extinction map of a ~1,700 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…
We consider from a general point of view the problem of determining the extinction in dense molecular clouds. We use a rigorous statistical approach to characterize the properties of the most widely used optical and infrared techniques,…
In studies of star-forming regions, near-infrared excess (NIRX) sources--objects with intrinsic colors redder than normal stars--constitute both signal (young stars) and noise (e.g. background galaxies). We hunt down (identify) galaxies…
We provide new, high-resolution A(Ks) extinction maps of the heavily reddened Galactic midplane based on the Rayleigh-Jeans Color Excess ("RJCE") method. RJCE determines star-by-star reddening based on a combination of near- and…