COBE-FIRAS Observations of Galactic Lines
| dc.creator | Fixsen, D. J. | |
| dc.creator | Bennett, C. L. | |
| dc.creator | Mather, J. C. | |
| dc.date | 1998-10-28 | |
| dc.date | 1999-01-25 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T02:28:47Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T02:28:47Z | |
| dc.description | The COBE Far InfraRed Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) observations constitute an unbiased survey over the wavelength range from 100 um to 1 cm over 99% of the sky. Improved calibration of the FIRAS instrument and the inclusion of all of the FIRAS data allow an improved signal to noise determination of the spectral lines by a factor of ~2 over our previous results. The resolution is low (0.45 cm^{-1}) so only the strongest lines are observable. The CO chain from J=1-0 to J=8-7 is observed towards the Galactic center. The line ratios are roughly consistent with a 40 K excitation temperature. The 157.7 um C II and 205.3 um N II lines are observable over most of the sky. The 370.4 um and 609.1 um lines of C I, and the 121.9 um line of N II are observed in the Galactic plane. The line ratios at the Galactic center are consistent with a density of n_0 ~30 cm^{-3} and a UV flux of G_0 ~15 uW m^{-2} sr^{-1} (10 Habing units). The 269 um H2O line is observed toward the Galactic center in absorption. | |
| dc.description | 12 pages, 5 Postscript Figures, uses aaspp4.sty, minor revisions to conform to the version accepted by ApJ | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9810466 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9810466 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/13209 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | COBE-FIRAS Observations of Galactic Lines | |
| dc.type | text |