Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aas...200.4201f&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 200th AAS Meeting, #42.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 34, p.708
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We present Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) observations of high ion interstellar ultraviolet absorption along the sight line to HD 116852. At a distance of 4.8 kpc, HD 116852 is an O9 III star lying in the low Galactic halo, -1.3 kpc from the plane of the Galaxy in the direction l = 304.9o, b = -6.1o. The sight line passes underneath the Sagittarius-Carina and the Norma-Centaurus spiral arms. The STIS E140H grating observations provide high-resolution (FWHM ≈ 2.7 km s-1) spectra of the resonance doublets of Si 4, C 4 and N 5. These data are complemented by medium-resolution (FWHM ≈ 20 km s-1) FUSE spectra of O 6. We find evidence for three distinct types of absorbing gas present in the data. First, two narrow absorption components are resolved in the Si 4 and \ion {C}{4} profiles, at approximate LSR velocities of -36 and -10 km s-1. These narrow components appear to be produced in gas associated with the Norma and Sagittarius spiral arms, at approximate z-distances of -1.0 and -0.5 kpc respectively. The temperature of the gas in in these narrow components, as implied by their b-values, suggests that the gas is photoionized. The ratio of C 4 to Si 4 in these narrow components is low compared to the Galactic average. Second, we detect an intermediate-width component in C 4 and Si 4, at +17 km s-1, which we propose could arise at the conductive interface at the boundary between a dense cloud and the surrounding medium. Finally, a broad collisionally ionized component of gas responsible for producing the smooth N 5 and O 6 profiles is observed; such absorption is also present to a lesser degree in the profiles of Si 4 and \ion {C}{4}. The broad O 6 absorption is observed at a velocity displaced from the C 4 profile by almost 20 km s-1, an amount large enough to suggest that the two ions may not co-exist in the same physical location. If these two ions do exist together, then the ratio N(C 4)/N(O 6) is too low to be consistent with turbulent mixing layer models, but could be explained by radiative cooling or conductive heating models. We appreciate financial support from NASA contract NAS5-32985.
Fabian Dirk
Fox Andrew J.
Howk Chris J.
Lauroesch James
Meyer David M.
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