Measurements of the millimeter-wave spectrum of interstellar dustemission

Journal Article · Wed Feb 23 00:00:00 EST 1994 · The Astrophysical Journal

OSTI ID:895537

Fischer, M L; Clapp, A; Devlin, M; Gundersen, J O; Lange, A E; Lubin, P M; Meinhold, P R; Richards, P L; Smoot, G F

We report measurements of the differential brightness ofinterstellar dust emission near the Galactic plane and at high Galacticlatitudes. The data were obtained as part of a program to measureanisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The measurementswere made with a 0.5 deg beam size and a 1.3 deg sinusoidal chop, inbroad bands (Delta nu/nu approximately 0.3) centered near frequencies of6, 9, and 12 cm-1. A measurement made toward the Galactic plane, atlongitude 1 = 23.7 deg, is compared with the contrast observed in the 100micrometersIRAS data. Assuming the dust emission has a brightness Inuproportional to nunBnu(Td), where Bnu is the Planck function, a best fityields n = 1.6 +/- 0.4, Td = 24 +/- 5 K. In a region near the star muPegasi (mu PEG l = 91 deg, b = -31 deg), the comparison of our data withthe 100 micrometers IRAS data yields n = 1.4 +/- 0.4, and Td = 18 +/- 3K. In a second region near the star gamma Ursa Minoris (GUM l = 108 deg,b = 41 deg), an upper limit is placed on contrast in dust emission. Thisupper limit is consistent with spectrum measured at mu PEG and the IRAS100 micrometer emission contrast at GUM, which is approximately 8 timeslower than mu PEG.

• Research Organization: COLLABORATION - National ScienceFoundation
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 895537
• Report Number(s): LBNL--61988
• Journal Information: The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Vol. 444
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English