Probing the Fine-Scale Structure and Colors of Interstellar ``Cirrus'' Clouds

Details Probing the Fine-Scale Structure and Colors of Interstellar ``Cirrus'' Clouds Probing the Fine-Scale Structure and Colors of Interstellar ``Cirrus'' Clouds

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7384g&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #7384

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #7384 Interstellar Matter

Scientific paper

The ubiquitous nature of Galactic ``cirrus'' clouds make them both: {1} accessible targets for the study of the properties of interstellar dust grains, and {2} sources of confusion in investigations of distant objects {e.g. galaxies, clusters of galaxies} at low surface brightness levels. Since its discovery by IRAS over a decade ago, the cirrus has mostly been studied in the far-infrared {thermal re-radiation by dust}. Recent ground-based optical images of the scattered light from cirrus reveal a wealth of structural detail on scales of 10'' to 10' {roughly 0.005-0.5 pc}. We propose to use the WFPC2 in SNAPSHOT mode to obtain F606W {V} and F814W {I} surface photometry of selected regions of bright cirrus complexes. This will enable the first-ever analysis of the cirrus fine structure on scales down to 0sec point3 {a factor of 30 smaller than existing data}, a marked increase in the dynamic range of its measured spatial power spectrum. This is crucial for understanding the effect of cirrus on deep extragalactic optical imaging. Ground-based measurements indicate that the mean optical colors of the cirrus are much redder than expected for scattering of ambient starlight, and that there is substantial color variation with position within clouds. The red emission is likely caused by luminescence in very small hydrogenated carbon grains. Our WFPC2 data will provide V-I color maps of unprecedented detail, allowing us to probe the spatial variations in the abundances of various grain species.

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