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2MASS wide field extinction maps

2008; EDP Sciences; Volume: 489; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1051/0004-6361

1432-0746

Marco Lombardi, C. J. Lada, J. Alves,

Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena

We present an extinction map of a ~1700 deg sq region that encloses the Ophiuchus, the Lupus, and the Pipe dark complexes using 42 million stars from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) point source catalog. The use of a robust and optimal near-infrared method to map dust column density (nicer, described in Lombardi & Alves 2001, A&A, 377, 1023) allow us to detect extinction as low as AK = 0.05 mag with a 2-σ significance, and still to have a resolution of 3 arcmin on our map. We also present a novel, statistically sound method to characterize the small-scale inhomogeneities in molecular clouds. Finally, we investigate the cloud structure function, and show that significant deviations from the results predicted by turbulent models are observed.