Coronal gas in the Galaxy. I - A new survey of interstellar O VI
E. B. Jenkins;
ApJ, 1978, 219, 845
ABSTRACT:Ultraviolet spectra of 40 O- and B-type stars have been intensively scanned in the vicinity of the O VI transitions at 1032 and 1038 A with the
Copernicus satellite.
This survey of the high-temperature (log T about 5.5)
phase of interstellar gas is an extension of the earlier observations of
interstellar O VI by Jenkins and Meloy (1974), bringing the total coverage up to 72
stars.
Except for a few distant stars, the overall quality of the present data
surpasses that of the earlier work.
Plots of absorption optical depths versus
radial velocity are presented for both transitions in each star.
Total
column densities (or their upper limits), velocity centroids, and velocity
widths have been extracted from the profiles and tabulated, with the results
of Jenkins and Meloy (1974) included.
Qualitatively, the highly
variable O VI densities and velocities seem to exhibit no systematic patterns or
regional trends; there is no recognizable correlation in the behavior of
coronal gas with pronounced features of galactic structure.
KEYWORDS: absorption spectra, galactic structure, interstellar matter, oxygen ions, ultraviolet spectra, b stars, line spectra, o stars, oao 3, optical thickness, radial velocity, spaceborne astronomy, stellar spectra
CODE: jenkins78