RUI: Interstellar Matter Near the Pleiades: Probing the Cloud-Cluster Interaction with Interstellar Absorption Lines

最近的研究表明， 我们熟悉的昂宿星星团是由一个偶然的 星系团和星际云之间的相遇。 数据从 红外天文卫星揭示了 昂宿星位于周围星际介质中，并表明 存在弓形激波， 压缩上游材料。 白色博士的研究 以下目标：追踪星际气体的运动 特别是在星团云中， 相互作用区域;探索普遍存在的物理条件 并推断出恒星之间的空间关系， 附近的气体;以表征星际过程中， 集群，特别是气体加热的主导过程， 尘埃颗粒发射出的光电子， CH+分子的形成过程。 达到这些目的的手段 将是分析星际吸收线在高 高分辨、高灵敏度的团簇光谱和背景光谱 基特峰国家天文台（Kitt Peak National Observatory） 这个奖项 是在本科院校研究（RUI）下进行的 程序.

Recent research has demonstrated that the nebulosity surrounding the familiar Pleiades star cluster results from an accidental encounter between the cluster and an interstellar cloud. Data from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite have revealed the wake of the Pleiades in the ambient interstellar medium, and have indicated the existence of a bow shock where heated gas near the cluster compresses the upstream material. Dr. White's research has the following aims: to trace the motions of the interstellar gas observed toward the Pleiades, particularly in the cluster-cloud interaction region; to explore the physical conditions that prevail in the gas and infer the spatial relationships among the stars and the nearby gas; to characterize interstellar processes in the cluster, particularly the dominant process of gas heating by photoelectrons emitted from dust grains and the poorly understood formation process of the CH+ molecule. The means to these ends will be analysis of interstellar absorption lines in high resolution, high sensitivity spectra of cluster and background stars to be obtained at Kitt Peak National Observatory. This award is made under the Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) program.