Mapping the Extinction Curve in 3D: Structure on Kiloparsec Scales

TL;DR

This study maps the three-dimensional distribution of the extinction curve parameter R(V) in the Milky Way, revealing large-scale variations that impact dust models and extragalactic observations.

Contribution

It combines 3D dust maps with R(V) measurements to analyze the spatial variation of the extinction curve across the Galaxy.

Findings

R(V) varies on kiloparsec scales in the Milky Way.

Most local dust within 1 kpc has lower R(V) than distant dust.

Results challenge existing dust models and affect extragalactic extinction corrections.

Abstract

Near-infrared spectroscopy from APOGEE and wide-field optical photometry from Pan-STARRS1 have recently made possible precise measurements of the shape of the extinction curve for tens of thousands of stars, parameterized by R(V). These measurements revealed structures in R(V) with large angular scales, which are challenging to explain in existing dust paradigms. In this work, we combine three-dimensional maps of dust column density with R(V) measurements to constrain the three-dimensional distribution of R(V) in the Milky Way. We find that variations in R(V) are correlated on kiloparsec scales. In particular, most of the dust within one kiloparsec in the outer Galaxy, including many local molecular clouds (Orion, Taurus, Perseus, California, Cepheus), has a significantly lower R(V) than more distant dust in the Milky Way. These results provide new input to models of dust evolution and processing, and complicate application of locally derived extinction curves to more distant regions of the Milky Way and to other galaxies.