Astro-2 Observations of Ultraviolet Polarization and Extinction of Interstellar Dust in the LMC

Session 30 -- First Results from Astro 2
Oral presentation, Tuesday, June 13, 1995, 2:00pm - 5:30pm

[30.06] Astro-2 Observations of Ultraviolet Polarization and Extinction of Interstellar Dust in the LMC

G. C. Clayton, J. Green \& M. J. Wolff (CASA, University of Colorado), A. D. Code, C. M. Anderson \& A. J. Weitenbeck (University of Wisconsin), A. F. Davidsen (The Johns Hopkins University), The WUPPE Science Team (University of Wisconsin), The HUT Science Team (The Johns Hopkins University)

We have obtained HUT and WUPPE observations of interstellar dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using Astro-2 which flew on the Space Shuttle in March 1995. These data represent the first UV polarimetry and Far-UV spectrophotometry ever obtained for reddened stars in the LMC. We will present the wavelength dependence of interstellar polarization in the UV down to 1400 \AA, and of extinction down to the Lyman limit. We will also derive information concerning the $H_2$ abundance along these lines of sight in the LMC. The data obtained with Astro-1 and HST toward reddened Galactic stars show the importance of these types of data in constraining dust grain models. We will use the Discrete Dipole Approximation and other techniques to model the dust grains including bare silicate/graphite, core-mantle, and fluffy/composite grains.

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