NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2001A-0350
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2001A-0350 |
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PI: Peter McCullough, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, pmcc@astro.uiuc.edu
Address: 1002 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA
CoI: Bob Benjamin, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Title: An Interstellar Contrail
Abstract: We have found an object that looks like a contrail behind an airplane. (We call it ``the interstellar contrail'' for fun.) It is 2.5\arcdeg long; it is 20\arcsec wide near one end, and diverges into three filaments separated by 5\arcmin at its other end. The length-to- width ratio is thus very large (2.5\arcdeg/20\arcsec=450). In H(alpha), its surface brightness is 0.5 Rayleighs (EM=1 cm^-6 pc). Its straightness and its length make it a unique object. We wish to find out what it is, and especially determine if it could be the ionization trail left by a fast, nearby, hot star, and then if that is true, (in some future proposal) we will propose to find the star and study it.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2001A-0350 |
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