AST/RO Observations of Atomic Carbon near the Galactic Center

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2001-02-10

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Roopesh Ojha, Antony A. Stark, Henry H. Hsieh, Adair P. Lane, Richard A. Chamberlin, Thomas M. Bania, Alberto D. Bolatto, James M. Jackson, and Gregory A. Wright,Vol #548,2001,AST/RO Observations of Atomic Carbon near the Galactic Center,https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/318693

Rights

This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
© 2001. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Subjects

Abstract

We present a coarsely sampled map of the region |l| ≤ 2°, |b| ≤ 0°1 in the 492 GHz (³P₁ → ³P₀) fine-structure transition of neutral carbon, observed with the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO). The distribution of [C I] emission is similar on the large scale to that of CO J = 1 → 0. On average, the ratio of the integrated intensities, I[C I]/I¹²ᴄᴏ, is higher in the Galactic disk than in the Galactic center region. This result is accounted for by the absorption of ¹²CO within the clouds located in the outer Galactic disk. The ratio I[C I]/I¹²ᴄᴏ is surprisingly uniform over the variety of environments near the Galactic center. On average, [C I] is optically thin [or as optically thin as ¹³CO (J = 1 → 0)], even in the dense molecular clouds of the Galactic center region.