Title
Polarimetry toward the Musca dark cloud. I. The catalog
Date Issued
10 March 2004
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Magalhães A.M.
Universidade de São Paulo
Publisher(s)
Institute of Physics Publishing
Abstract
We have used CCD imaging polarimetry to obtain linear polarization measurements of background stars toward the filamentary Musca dark cloud. We present a catalog of 2497 objects with polarization signal-to-noise ratio larger than 5. This allows us to build polarization maps to infer the detailed geometry of the local magnetic field. We show composite polarization maps along the cloud and explore general correlations of the polarimetric data with the morphology of the region. We find the overall field to be strikingly aligned with the projected small axis of the filamentary cloud. We detect a lower limit for the polarization across the cloud of ∼2%, with an enhanced polarization of 6%-7% in the central region. We find evidence that the polarization pattern is altered in the inner regions, those associated with higher extinction.
Start page
584
End page
594
Volume
603
Issue
2 I
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Física y Astronomía
Subjects
DOI
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-2142755253
Source
Astrophysical Journal
ISSN of the container
0004637X
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus