NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Studying the spatial distribution of interstellar dustThe spacial distribution of interstellar dust reflects both interstellar dynamics and the processes which form and destroy dust in the interstellar medium (ISM). The IRAS survey, because of its high sensitivity to thermal emission from dust in the IR, provides new approaches to determining the spatial distribution of dust. The initial results are reported of an attempt to use the IRAS data to probe the spatial distribution of dust - by searching for thermal emission from dust in the vicinity of bright stars. These results show that this technique (which relies on finding IR emission associated with randomly selected stars) can ultimately be used to study the distribution of dust in the ISM. The density of the cloud producing the IR emission may be derived by assuming that the dust is at its projected distance from the star and that the heating is due to the star's (known) radiation field. The heating radiation is folded into a grain model, and the number of emitting grains adjusted to reproduce the observed energy distribution. It is noted that this technique is capable in principle of detecting dust densities much lower than those typical of the cirrus clouds.
Document ID
19910005667
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Walker, Helen J.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD., United States)
Werner, Michael W.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA., United States)
Allen, C.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA., United States)
Henry, R. C.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD., United States)
Kimble, R.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD., United States)
Wofford, J.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD., United States)
Murthy, Jayant
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD., United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
December 1, 1989
Publication Information
Publication: Interstellar Dust: Contributed Papers
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Accession Number
91N14980
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
No Preview Available