Interstellar medium. Pseudo-three-dimensional maps of the diffuse interstellar band at 862 nm.

Journal article

The diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are absorption lines observed in visual and near-infrared spectra of stars. Understanding their origin in the interstellar medium is one of the oldest problems in astronomical spectroscopy, as DIBs have been known since 1922. In a completely new approach to understanding DIBs, we combined information from nearly 500,000 stellar spectra obtained by the massive spectroscopic survey RAVE (Radial Velocity Experiment) to produce the first pseudo-three-dimensional map of the strength of the DIB at 8620 angstroms covering the nearest 3 kiloparsecs from the Sun, and show that it follows our independently constructed spatial distribution of extinction by interstellar dust along the Galactic plane. Despite having a similar distribution in the Galactic plane, the DIB 8620 carrier has a significantly larger vertical scale height than the dust. Even if one DIB may not represent the general DIB population, our observations outline the future direction of DIB research.

Authors: Kos, J; Zwitter, T; Wyse, R; Bienaymé, O; Binney, J

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.)
• Volume: 345
• Issue: 6198
• Pages: 791-795
• Publication date: 2014-08-01
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1253171
• EISSN: 1095-9203
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• Language: English