Dust Extinction and the Internal Structure of Globule 2 in the Coalsack

Author(s)

L. J. Crews, T. L. Huard, C. J. Lada, J. F. Alves, K. P. Pershell

Abstract

We present a very high resolution map of the dust extinction for Globule

2 in the Coalsack. This map was constructed using near-infrared color

excesses of more than 10000 background stars obtained from deep, New

Technology Telescope observations. Like the well studied globule B 68,

this Coalsack globule appears to be azimuthally symmetric; but, unlike B

68, it is not an isolated core. Instead, it is embedded within a less

dense and more extended cloud. We model the radial density distribution

of this Coalsack globule in order to determine its internal structure

and stability. Furthermore, by analyzing the dispersion in the

extinction, we investigate the nature of any small scale structure in

the globule. We find the globule to be relatively smooth, determining

that random spatial fluctuations in column density amount to no more

than 10% on scales of 1000 AU or less.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

External organisation(s)

Joint ALMA Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, University of Tennessee at Martin

Journal

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society

Volume

Pages

737

ISSN

0002-7537

Publication date

05-2003

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103004 Astrophysics

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