Related papers: Distances to Dark Clouds: Comparing Extinction Dis…
Using near infrared UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey data, we make extinction measurements to individual stars along the same line of sight as molecular clouds. Using an existing 3D extinction map of the inner Galaxy, that provides line of…
The distance to the stars is a fundamental parameter, which is determined via two primary methods - parallax and luminosity. While the parallax is a direct trigonometric method, the luminosity distance is usually influenced by interstellar…
We want to estimate the distance to molecular clouds in the solar vicinity in a statistically precise way. Clouds are recognized as extinction discontinuities. The extinction is estimated from the $(H-K) \ vs. \ (J-H)$ diagram and distances…
Determining star cluster distances is essential to analyse their properties and distribution in the Galaxy. In particular it is desirable to have a reliable, purely photometric distance estimation method for large samples of newly…
Galaxies behind the Milky Way suffer size reduction and dimming due to their obscuration by dust in the disk of our Galaxy. The degree of obscuration is wavelength dependent. It decreases towards longer wavelengths. Compared to the optical,…
(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…
For more than fifty years, astronomers have mapped the neutral hydrogen gas in the Galaxy assuming kinematically derived distances. We employ the distances of nearby young stars, which trace the gas from which they formed, in…
Dust in galaxies can be mapped by either the FIR/sub-mm emission, the optical or infrared reddening of starlight, or the extinction of a known background source. We compare two dust extinction measurements for a set of fifteen sections in…
3D tomography of the interstellar dust and gas may be useful in many respects, from the physical and chemical evolution of the ISM itself to foreground decontamination of the CMB, or various studies of the environments of specific objects.…
X-ray photons from energetic sources such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be scattered on dust clouds in the Milky Way, creating a time-evolving halo around the GRB position. X-ray observations of such halos allow the measurement of dust…
Distance measurements to molecular clouds are essential and important. We present directly measured distances to 169 molecular clouds in the fourth quadrant of the Milky Way. Based on the near-infrared photometry from the Two Micron All Sky…
Accurate distances to stars and galaxies allow for significant tests of stellar evolution, galaxy formation and evolution and cosmology. NASA's Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) will obtain precision [1-30 microarcsec] astrometry for…
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…
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…
Accurate distances to local molecular clouds are critical for understanding the star and planet formation process, yet distance measurements are often obtained inhomogeneously on a cloud-by-cloud basis. We have recently developed a method…
Dust extinction is one of the most reliable tracers of the gas distribution in the Milky Way. The near-infrared (NIR) Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey enables extinction mapping based on stellar photometry over a large area in…
The principle of the background-eliminated extinction-parallax (BEEP) method is examining the extinction difference between on- and off-cloud regions to reveal the extinction jump caused by molecular clouds, thereby revealing the distance…
We report results of a near--infrared imaging survey of L977, a dark cloud in Cygnus seen in projection against the plane of the Milky Way. We use measurements of the near--infrared color excess and positions of the 1628 brightest stars in…
We critique the method of constructing extinction curves of lensing galaxies using multiply imaged QSOs. If one of the two QSO images is lightly reddened or if the dust along both sightlines has the same properties then the method works…
We describe the use of partially overlapping galaxies to provide direct measurements of the effective absorption in galaxy disks, independent of assumptions about internal disk structure. The non-overlapping parts of the galaxies and…