Abstract
After a brief review of the Galactic molecular surveys, we discuss the distinct types of Galactic clouds. We briefly describe the large GMCs and then turn our attention to the smaller objects, like dark clouds, but with an emphasis on the flotsam of the ISM, the small diffuse and translucent clouds. We also discuss how recent work on diffuse clouds is revising our ideas of this component of the ISM.
Aren’t the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton…I could just lie here all day, and watch them drift by…If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations…What do you think you see, Linus? Charles M. Schulz, The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959–1960
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Notes
- 1.
It is this diffuse molecular component that has recently caused much confusion about its quantity and importance in the ISM. The rise in popularity of the idea of a “dark” molecular component (in its original definition, a component of molecular gas that was spectroscopically undetectable, and, later, one that could not be traced by the CO(1-0) transition) will be examined in the next chapter.
- 2.
These values are for a Solar Circle at 8 kpc; using the originally accepted value of 10 kpc would increase the galactocentric locations by 20%.
- 3.
As of the summer of 2016, the Harvard-Smithsonian mm-wave group had completely mapped the Northern Galactic Hemisphere in the CO(1-0) line.
- 4.
Some of the detections of the initial paper were disputed by Solomon et al. (1983).
- 5.
The distribution of molecular gas with respect to Galactic radius can be seen in Fig. 8.1
- 6.
The drop in H I column density as determined from the 21 cm line in the direction of dark clouds (as compared to their surroundings) implied that the gas thought to be present in the dark cloud was most likely molecular in form.
- 7.
Lynds dark cloud from the 1962 catalog are denoted as L followed by their numerical designation. However, the SIMBAD database refers to them as LDN followed by a number.
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Magnani, L., Shore, S.N. (2017). Surveying the Molecular Milky Way. In: A Dirty Window. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 442. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54350-4_7
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