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| EPoS Contribution |
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The PROMISE Survey: High-Resolution Column Density Mapping of the Galactic Plane
Jouni Kainulainen Chalmers, Gothenburg, SE | |
| I present an overview of the PROMISE galactic plane survey. PROMISE is a dust extinction mapping survey that will provide high-resolution (FWHM=2"), high-sensitivity column density maps for hundreds of molecular clouds in the Galactic plane, covering a statistically interesting volume of the Milky Way. The survey combines near-infrared photometric data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea survey with Spitzer mid-infrared imaging data. I discuss the scientific drivers of the program, its synergy with the existing surveys, and its main technical challenges. I will showcase the survey data using test fields and present the first results emerging from the data. Altogether, the survey provides a Legacy-type database for studies of the molecular structure, evolution, fragmentation, and star formation. It also enables charting a large number of new cloud complexes close to the Galactic plane, missed by earlier surveys due to the difficulties of extinction mapping in the Galactic plane. The data will also function as a concrete link between galactic and extra-galactic molecular cloud studies by resolving the internal structure of clouds whose analogues can now be identified in nearby galaxies with ALMA. | |
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| Caption: Details from the PROMISE extinction mapping program. Top: Virtually uncharted complex of dark clouds around l=345, b=1.5, at the distance of 1.8 kpc (courtesy, M. Zhang). Bottom: High-resolution (2") extinction map of an Orion-like GMC, G357, at the distance of 3.5 kpc. | |
| Collaborators: M. Zhang, MPIA, DE |
Suggested Session:
Molecular clouds |