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The CO-H2 conversion factor of diffuse ISM: Bright12CO emission also traces diffuse gas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2011

J. Pety
Affiliation:
Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique & Obs. de Paris, France. e-mail: [email protected] ;
H.S. Liszt
Affiliation:
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA; e-mail: [email protected] ;
R. Lucas
Affiliation:
Joint ALMA Observatory, Chili; e-mail: [email protected] ;
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Abstract

We show that the XCO factor, which converts the CO luminosityinto the column density of molecular hydrogen has similar values for dense, fullymolecular gas and for diffuse, partially molecular gas. We discuss the reasons of thiscoincidence and the consequences for the understanding of the interstellar medium.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EAS, EDP Sciences 2011

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