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V. H. Chaplin (Swarthmore College), K. A. Larson (Western Washington University), P. A. Gerakines (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
Studies of the interactions of starlight with materials present in the interstellar medium reveal much about the properties of interstellar dust grains—the main source of scattering and absorption of starlight. Here, we present a study of dust in lines of sight that pass through the interstellar cloud complex MBM 18-19. Data for 238 stars were collected from the SIMBAD Astronomical Database, the OASIS archive of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), and the recently released database from the 2-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) for infrared luminosity data. Comparisons of infrared colors have shown evidence for at least 20 newly forming star systems, or Young Stellar Objects (YSOs). Through examination of the amount of reddening due to interstellar dust, we determined that the distance to the cloud is 80 ± 20 parsecs. A useful indicator of interstellar dust grain properties is the ratio (RV) of total extinction of visible light to the reddening in each line of sight. Large values of RV signify large dust grains in a particular line of sight, and larger grains are usually found deep within the cloud where total extinction is large. In our study, we find only slight evidence for a systematic increase in RV with increasing extinction. We have also studied other methods of determining RV, with the limited results. From the data, we have produced detailed maps of extinction and RV in the region of the MBM 18-19 cloud complex.
We acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF)- Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)- site award to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) under Grant No. DMR-0243640
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.