[175.20] D/H and D/O in the Galactic disk towards the CSPN RX J2117+3412

AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 175 Recent Discoveries in the Far UV
Poster, Thursday, 9:20am-4:00pm, January 12, 2006, Exhibit Hall

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[175.20] D/H and D/O in the Galactic disk towards the CSPN RX J2117+3412

J.W. Kruk, C. Oliveira (JHU)

We present results from an analysis of interstellar absorption along the line of sight to the CSPN RX J2117+3412. This line of sight probes the Galactic disk (l=80, b=-10) over a modest distance of ~760 pc. Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spectra spanning 912Å- 1187Åprovide information on the column densities of DI, OI, NI, Ar I, FeII, CI, and H2. The neutral hydrogen column density has been determined from high-resolution IUE data to be log NH = 20.50. FUSE measurements of D/H at higher HI column densities have found extremely low values, typically half of the Local Bubble value of 15 ppm. For HI column densities between log NH = 20.5 and the nominal Local Bubble boundary at log NH = 19.2, however, D/H has been found to vary over a wide range. Data from this sightline, at the apparent boundary between these two regimes, may help elucidate the processes responsible for the variations in deuterium abundance.

Financial support has been provided by NASA contract NAS5-32985.

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