The Distribution of Neutral Gas in the Local Interstellar Medium
Abstract
We present high resolution measurements of the Na i column densities observed towards 84 early-type stars located within 300 pc of the Sun. These new results have been combined with Na i columns for a further 172 stars taken from the literature in order to produce maps of the galactic distribution of cold, neutral gas in the Local Interstellar Medium. These maps delineate the approximate size and shape of the Local Bubble feature. The distribution of neutral gas greatly affects the observability of sources in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV). Comparisons of the Na i maps are made with the galactic distribution of EUV sources observed by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) and the ROSAT Wide Field Camera all-sky surveys. This work has been supported by NASA contracts NAS5-30180 and NAS5-29298.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #182
- Pub Date:
- May 1993
- Bibcode:
- 1993AAS...182.0802W