Dust in three dimensions in the Galactic Plane

TL;DR

This paper creates detailed 3D maps of dust extinction and the extinction parameter in the Galactic Plane using data from Pan-STARRS1 and Spitzer surveys, covering a large stellar sample with high spatial resolution.

Contribution

It introduces a method to infer three-dimensional dust maps in the Galactic Plane with high resolution using combined photometric data and individual stellar parameter estimation.

Findings

High-resolution 3D dust maps of the Galactic Plane produced.

Simultaneous estimation of distance, temperature, and extinction parameters.

Maps publicly available for further research.

Abstract

We present three dimensional maps in monochromatic extinction $A_{\rm 0}$ and the extinction parameter $R_0$ within a few degrees of the Galactic plane. These are inferred using photometry from the Pan-STARRS1 and Spitzer Glimpse surveys of nearly $20$ million stars located in the region $l = 0-250^{\circ}$ and from $b = -4.5^{\circ}$ to $b=4.5^{\circ}$. Given the available stellar number density, we use an angular resolution of $7' \times 7'$ and steps of $1{\rm mag}$ in distance modulus. We simultaneously estimate distance modulus and effective temperature $T_{\rm eff}$ alongside the other parameters for stars individually using the method of \citet{Hanson2014} before combining these estimates to a complete map. The full maps are available via the MNRAS website.