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The distribution of interstellar dust in the solar neighborhood

1993; Institute of Physics; Volume: 105; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/133291

1538-3873

John E. Gaustad, D. van Buren,

Astro and Planetary Science

We surveyed the IRAS data base at the prositions of the 1808 06-B9.5 stars in the Bright Star Catalog for extended objects with excess emission at 60 microns, indicating the presence of interstellar dust at the location of the star. Within 400 pc the filling factor of the interstellar medium for dust clouds with a density greater than 0.5 cm-3 is 14.6 ± 2.4%. Above a density of 1.0 cm-3, the denisty distribution function appears to follow a power law of index -1.25. When the dust clouds are mapped onto the galactic plane, the sun appears to be located in a low density region of the interstellar medium of width about 60 pc extending at least 500 pc in the direction of longitudes 80 degrees -260 degrees, a feature we call the "local trough".