AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 140 Cold Gas and Molecular Clouds
Poster, Thursday, January 13, 2005, 9:20am-4:00pm, Exhibit Hall

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[140.09] Detection of molecular hydrogen fluorescence in the Taurus region

D.-H. Lee, W. Han, U. K. Nam, H. Jin, S. Pak (Korea Astronomy Observatory), K. W. Min, K. S. Ryu, J. H. Shinn (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), J. Edelstein, E. J. Korpela, K. Nishikida (SSL, U.C. Berkeley)

We detect and analyze molecular hydrogen fluorescence in the Taurus region using the Far-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (FIMS, known as SPEAR in USA) on the Korea's first scientific micro-satellite STSAT-1, which was launched at Sep. 27, 2003. FIMS(SPEAR) is optimized for observing diffuse emission lines in the interstellar medium in the wavelength bands of 900-1150 and 1300-1700 Å. The Taurus region is a local molecular cloud complex which is good for studying the photodissociation region (PDR). Previous observation by UVX mission indicated that there are molecular hydrogen fluorescent emissions in that region (Martin, Hurwitz, & Bowyer 1990). H2 fluorescence map of the Taurus region obtained by FIMS(SPEAR) reveals the clumpy distribution of PDRs in molecular clouds. We are able to derive the H2 emission intensity by pointed observing the halo region: I = 9 x 104 photons cm-2 s-1 sr-1. We also derive the physical parameters of the halo region of the Taurus cloud by model fitting the H2 fluorescence lines.

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