Mapping Dust in 3-D with Pan-STARRS

该项目将绘制银河系内尘埃的空间分布图。他们的项目追踪银河系结构和恒星形成，是修正星际灭绝的工具。以前关于尘埃结构的工作主要集中在尘埃的投影密度上，产生了横跨天空的尘埃柱密度的二维地图。他们的新方法是制作一张尘埃图，直接测量恒星的消亡。通过结合天空中大量恒星的距离和消光估计，有可能制作出星际灭绝的三维地图。PanSTARRS-1一直在测量天空的3个星体，制作了一个点源目录，其中包括5个通道中的500多万颗恒星。他们提议使用PanSTARRS-1测光技术制作覆盖四分之三天空的高分辨率三维尘埃图，并将其提供给公众。他们的3D地图将能够估计到单个尘埃云和尘埃丝的距离，并更好地利用来自CO和HI调查的信息，这两项调查存在速度-距离退化的问题。这样的地图还提高了对恒星3D分布的理解，允许对矮星系和潮汐流进行较少偏见的搜索。当研究人员将数百或数千颗恒星组合在同一视线上(在一个空间像素内)时，他们对沿视线的尘埃分布提供了强大的约束。一名研究生将完成这项研究的一部分，并将接受开发和应用理论、观测和统计分析工具来解决星系形成和演化问题的培训。他们将通过万维网(WWT)发布数据以供使用。WWT是一个领先的教育工具，将天文学的敬畏和美丽带给公众。它允许用户在天空中进行缩放和平移，将不同波长的全天地图与特定物体的详细观测无缝地合并在一起。WWT有一个3D模式，用户可以在其中浏览太阳系、银河系的3D结构，以及红移测量提供的大比例结构图。PI之前已经为WWT项目贡献了SFD尘埃贴图和H-Alpha贴图，并预计尽快贡献3D尘埃贴图。

The project will map the spatial distribution of dust within the Milky Way. Their project traces Galactic structure and star formation, and is a tool for correcting for interstellar extinction. Previous work on dust structure has focused primarily on the projected density of dust, yielding two-dimensional maps of the dust column density across the sky. Their new approach is to produce a dust map is to measure stellar extinction directly. By combining distance and extinction estimates for a large number of stars across the sky, it is possible to produce a three-dimensional map of interstellar extinction. PanSTARRS-1 has been surveying 3ð steradians of the sky, producing a point-source catalog of more than 500,000,000 stars in five passbands They propose to produce a high-resolution three-dimensional dust map across three-quarters of the sky using PanSTARRS-1 photometry, and to make it available to the public.Their 3-D map will allow estimation of distances to individual dust clouds and filaments, and better utilize information from CO and HI surveys, which suffer from velocity-distance degeneracy. Such a map also improves the understanding of the 3D distribution of stars, allowing for less biased searches for dwarf galaxies and tidal streams. When the researchers combine hundreds or thousands of stars along the same line of sight (in one spatial pixel) they provide a powerful constraint on the dust distribution along the line of sight.A graduate student will carry out part of this research and will be trained in developing and applying theory, observation, and statistical analysis tools to problems in Galaxy formation and evolution. They will release the data for use via the World Wide Telescope (WWT). The WWT is a leading educational tool bringing the awe and beauty of astronomy to the public. It allows the user to zoom and pan around the sky, seamlessly merging full-sky maps at various wavelengths with detailed observations of particular objects. WWT has a 3D mode, in which the user can move through the 3D structure of the Solar System, Galaxy, and large-scale structure maps provided by redshift surveys. The PI has previously contributed the SFD dust map and H-alpha maps to the WWT project, and expects to contribute a 3D dust map as soon as possible.