KINETIC TOMOGRAPHY. I. A METHOD FOR MAPPING THE MILKY WAY’S INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IN FOUR DIMENSIONS

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2017 · Astronomical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/153/1/8· OSTI ID:22664052

Tchernyshyov, Kirill ^[1]; Peek, J. E. G. ^[2]

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1. The Johns Hopkins University (United States)
2. Space Telescope Science Institute (United States)

We have developed a method for deriving the distribution of the Milky Way’s interstellar medium as a function of longitude, latitude, distance, and line-of-sight velocity. This method takes as input maps of reddening as a function of longitude, latitude, distance, and maps of line emission as a function of longitude, latitude, and line-of-sight velocity. We have applied this method to data sets covering much of the Galactic plane. The output of this method correctly reproduces the line-of-sight velocities of high-mass star-forming regions with known distances from Reid et al. and qualitatively agrees with results from the Milky Way kinematics literature. These maps will be useful for measuring flows of gas around the Milky Way’s spiral arms and into and out of giant molecular clouds.

• OSTI ID: 22664052
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (Online), Journal Name: Astronomical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 153; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CLOUDS
DISTANCE
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
MAPPING
MASS
MILKY WAY
STARS
TOMOGRAPHY
VELOCITY