AAS 197, January 2001
Session 112. The Magellanic Clouds
Display, Thursday, January 11, 2001, 9:30-4:00pm, Exhibit Hall

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[112.08] An Atlas of Magellanic Cloud Sightlines Observed by FUSE

C. W. Danforth, K. R. Sembach, J. C. Howk, W. P. Blair (JHU)

Since its launch in June 1999, the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite has observed ~72 hot stars in the Magellanic Clouds in the spectral range 905--1187\rmÅ. These observations provide high-resolution (~15-20 km~s-1) absorption line measurements of stellar photosphere and wind material as well as gas along the lines of sight to these stars. A range of ionic species are covered including \ion{O}{6}, which probes T=105-106K gas; \ion{C}{3}, \ion{Fe}{3}, and \ion{S}{3}, which trace photoionized 103-104K gas; \ion{C}{2}, \ion{Fe}{2}, \ion{Si}{2}, \ion{O}{1}, and \ion{Ar}{1}, which probe 102-104K \ion{H}{1}-bearing gas; and H2 from cold clouds. To help understand the morphology and environment in which each FUSE target is located, we have obtained narrow-band H\alpha and other emission-line CCD images with the Curtis Schmidt Telescope at CTIO.

In this poster, we present an atlas of narrow-band images and FUSE spectra for a large subset of the Magellanic Cloud sight lines. The images trace the morphology of the warm (T~04K) H\alpha-emitting material over a 20\arcmin\ field surrounding each target. Selected spectral lines observed by FUSE reveal a variety of velocity components and physical conditions in the gas along these sight lines. This project is the first step in a graduate thesis designed to study the structure and physical conditions of the hot interstellar medium in the Magellanic Clouds.

This work is supported by NASA contract NAS5-32985 to the Johns Hopkins University.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: danforth@pha.jhu.edu

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