HyGAL. III. Absorption lines Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Kim W.-J.
  2. Jacob A.M.
  3. Neufeld D.A.
  4. Schilke P.
  5. Wiesemeyer H.
  6. Gerin M.,Wolfire M.G.
  7. Ossenkopf-Okada V.
  8. Valdivia V.
  9. Falgarone E.
  10. Lis D.C.,Bialy S.
  11. Rugel M.R.
  12. Sanchez-Monge A.
  13. Busch M.
  14. Moeller T.
  15. Wyrowski F.,Seifried D.
  16. Menten K.M.
  17. Saintonge A.
  18. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

The HyGAL Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) legacy program aims at characterizing the interstellar medium in the Milky Way using hydrides, [CII], and [OI] absorption lines with the 2.7m SOFIA telescope toward twenty-five submillimeter-bright Galactic star-forming regions. As part of HyGAL, we investigated correlations among the known H_2_ tracers- CH and OH from SOFIA observations, and HCO^+^ and CCH from ancillary absorption line data from ground-based telescopes. We also examined the abundance variation of neutral atomic oxygen, [OI], observed in absorption. CH, OH, HCO^+^, and CCH all exhibit strong mutual correlations. OH in particular shows tight correlations with HCO^+^ and CCH, reflecting their linked chemical and physical pathways. Column density ratios among these H_2_ tracers are consistent with previous measurements in local diffuse clouds and remain uniform across Galactic environments and velocity intervals. The gas phase oxygen abundance relative to total hydrogen, <X(O)>=N(O)/N(Htotal), is (3.09+/-0.64)x10^-4^, slightly below the elemental solar value but consistent with the previous observations measuring gas-phase abundances. We also find that N(HI) decreases toward the regions where the molecular fraction exceeds f^N^_H2_~0.5, marking the onset of the molecular phase. While the atomic oxygen abundance remains roughly constant, the abundances of OH, HCO^+^, and CCH increase with the molecular fraction. Gas traced by the HCO^+^ absorption corresponds to higher molecular fractions than that traced by HI and hydride ions, highlighting density variations in the diffuse-to-translucent ISM along different lines of sight.

Keywords
  1. interstellar-medium
  2. molecular-clouds
  3. spectroscopy
  4. infrared-astronomy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2026A&A...710A.301K
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/710/A301
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/710/A301

Access

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https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/710/A301
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/710/A301
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Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
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https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/710/A301/tablea1?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/710/A301/tablea1?

History

2026-06-24T09:24:19Z
Resource record created
2026-06-24T08:25:32Z
Updated
2026-06-24T09:24:19Z
Created

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr