 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cohen, R.S., 1977: The Galactic Distribution of Carbon Monoxide: An Out-of-Plane Survey. Ph.D. thesis. Columbia University.
Galactic CO line emission at 115 GHz has been surveyed in the region 15 ° < ℓ < 60° and -1.5° ≲ b ≲ 1.5° using the Columbia 4-foot telescope (HPBW 8 arc minutes).
This survey, which comprises the first systematic out-of-plane data on CO emission from the Galaxy, confirms the finding of previous in-plane studies that CO is concentrated in a ring 6 kpc in radius. It provides the first determination of the thickness of this molecular ring as a function of galactic radius and shows that CO is displaced from the conventional galactic plane. These results were arrived at by least-squares fitting the survey data to a circularly symmetric model of the Galaxy. The average half-thickness at half maximum of the molecular ring is 59 pc and the average displacement of the ring with respect to the b = 0° plane is -40 pc.
A comparison of the CO and HI distributions shows that there are marked differences in the distributions of these species, both radially and out of the plane. The CO distribution is similar to those of HII regions, supernova remnants, and other young galactic objects. It is argued that CO is probably the best available tracer of this component of the Galaxy.
A detailed discussion of the antenna characteristics, including the radiation pattern and pointing characteristics, is presented.
|
|
|
