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Cold molecular gas hemisphere (galactic centre direction)

Submitted by Kevin Jardine on 20 July, 2012 - 10:18


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This shows the 3-dimensional velocity map hemisphere for the cold molecular gas (0.5 °K)in the direction of the galactic centre (inner galaxy).

Local large molecular clouds from the Rift complex of dark clouds (especially the Aquila rift) as well as the Ophiuchus dark clouds are visible above the galactic plane.

You can see a version of this image that shows the warmer gas within the cold molecular clouds here.

This data is take from the composite molecular gas survey produced by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The composite data released so far is not yet all-sky but is restricted to |b| atomic hydrogen equivalent to this image.