Related papers: Mixing Interstellar Clouds Surrounding the Sun
The physical conditions within our heliosphere are driven by the Sun's motion through an evolving interstellar environment that remains largely unexplored. The next generation of outer heliosphere and interstellar explorers will answer…
We have detected over 400 HI clouds in the lower halo of the Galaxy within the pilot region of the Galactic All-Sky Survey (GASS), a region of the fourth quadrant that spans 18 degrees in longitude, 40 degrees in latitude and is centered on…
We describe a population of small, high velocity, atomic hydrogen clouds, loops, and filaments found above and below the disk near the Galactic Center. The objects have a mean radius of 15 pc, velocity widths of $\sim 14$ km/s and are…
Interstellar clouds form the cosmic "ecosystem" through which the Sun moves. Understanding the physical properties of nearby interstellar material, in sufficient detail to evaluate historical variations in the solar galactic environment,…
The low Galactic halo is enveloped by a sheath of ionized, low-metallicity gas, which can provide a substantial (1 M_sun/yr) cooling inflow to replenish star formation in the disk. Using absorption spectra from the HST and FUSE toward 37…
We investigate interstellar absorption from molecular hydrogen (H_2) and metals in an intermediate-velocity cloud (IVC) in the direction of the LMC star Sk -68 80 (HD 36521), based on data from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer…
The HI halo clouds of the Milky Way, and in particular the intermediate-velocity clouds (IVCs), are thought to be connected to Galactic fountain processes. Observations of fountain clouds are important for understanding the role of matter…
Interstellar dust and gas that enter the heliosphere provide us with important clues about both the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium (LISM). The picture we have of the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) from both \emph{in situ}…
The gas-to-dust mass ratios found for interstellar dust within the Solar System, versus values determined astronomically for the cloud around the Solar System, suggest that large and small interstellar grains have separate histories, and…
Direct sampling of interstellar neutral (ISN) atoms close to the Sun enables studies of the very local interstellar medium (VLISM) around the heliosphere. The primary population of ISN helium atoms has, until now, been assumed to reflect…
We present two sets of grid-based hydrodynamical simulations of high-velocity clouds (HVCs) traveling through the diffuse, hot Galactic halo. These HI clouds have been suggested to provide fuel for ongoing star formation in the Galactic…
We have obtained high resolution (FWHM = 4.4 km/s) Keck spectra of images A and C of the gravitationally lensed QSO Q1422+231. The images are separated by 1.3" on the sky. In an absorption system at z = 3.538 gas column density variations…
A disconcerting mismatch of thermal pressures for two media in contact with each other, (1) the warm, Circum-heliospheric Interstellar Medium (CHISM) and (2) the very hot material within a much larger region called the Local Bubble (LB),…
We present Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) observations of interstellar molecular hydrogen (H_2) in two Galactic high-velocity clouds (HVCs). Molecular hydrogen absorption is detected in the Magellanic Stream (abundance ~0.3…
The high- and intermediate-velocity interstellar clouds (HVCs/IVCs) are tracers of energetic processes in and around the Milky Way. Clouds with near-solar metallicity about one kpc above the disk trace the circulation of material between…
We present the results of a new sensitive survey of neutral hydrogen above and below the Galactic Center with the Green Bank Telescope. The observations extend up to Galactic latitude | b | < 10 deg with an effective angular resolution of…
There is mounting evidence for an extra-planar gas layer around the Milky Way disk, similar to the anomalous HI gas detected in a few other galaxies. As much as 10% of the gas may be in this phase. We analyze HI clouds located in the…
The 500 central pc of the Galaxy (hereafter GC) exhibit a widespread gas component with a kinetic temperature of 100-200 K. The bulk of this gas is not associated to the well-known thermal radio continuum or far infrared sources like Sgr A…
The importance of understanding the current and historical galactic environments of cool stars is discussed. The penetration of interstellar gas into a stellar astrosphere is a function of the interaction of the star with the interstellar…
The solar wind (SW) and local interstellar medium (LISM) are turbulent media. Their interaction is governed by complex physical processes and creates heliospheric regions with significantly different properties in terms of particle…