Through the Thick and Thin: Electron Density Measurements of the Local Interstellar Medium

Details Through the Thick and Thin: Electron Density Measurements of the Local Interstellar Medium Through the Thick and Thin: Electron Density Measurements of the Local Interstellar Medium

Aug 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aspc..393..195f&link_type=abstract

New Horizons in Astronomy: Frank N. Bash Symposium 2007 ASP Conference Series, Vol. 393, proceedings of the conference held 14-1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

In a comprehensive survey of observations from the high resolution spectrographs on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), we have detected interstellar C II absorption for the 1334.5 Å ground-state transition and the 1335.7 Å (doublet) collisionally populated excited-state transition for 13 sight lines toward stars within 100 parsecs. We derive column densities of C II in each of the states and use methods implemented by tet{wood97} to measure the electron densities along the lines of sight. Electron densities in the local interstellar medium (LISM) are particularly difficult to ascertain, but are essential for understanding the ionization structure of the LISM and density variations which impact the morphology of the heliosphere. To combat systematic error due to the saturation of the C II resonance line, we also use S II measurements as a proxy to determine column densities. Our sample consists of 13 stars, a significant improvement in the number of measurements that allows us to search for variations in density for the first time. The sample of electron densities appears consistent with a log-normal distribution, with an unweighted mean density of ne=0.13+0.15-0.07 cm-3 and, based on S II as a proxy, ne(C IISII)=0.11+0.10-0.05 cm-3.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Through the Thick and Thin: Electron Density Measurements of the Local Interstellar Medium does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Through the Thick and Thin: Electron Density Measurements of the Local Interstellar Medium, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Through the Thick and Thin: Electron Density Measurements of the Local Interstellar Medium will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1690095