Dust extinction map of the Galactic plane based on the VVV survey data

TL;DR

This paper presents a new high-resolution near-infrared dust extinction map of the Galactic plane using VVV survey data, combining multiple techniques for improved accuracy and coverage.

Contribution

Introduction of XPNICER, a novel extinction mapping method that integrates VVV data with stellar parameters and existing techniques for detailed Galactic dust mapping.

Findings

Map covers Galactic disk and bulge with 30 arcsecond resolution.

Extinction traced up to about 30 mag of visual extinction.

Map effectively recovers diffuse dust and molecular cloud regions.

Abstract

Dust extinction is one of the most reliable tracers of the gas distribution in the Milky Way. The near-infrared (NIR) Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey enables extinction mapping based on stellar photometry over a large area in the Galactic plane. We devise a novel extinction mapping approach, XPNICER, by bringing together VVV photometric catalogs, stellar parameter data from StarHorse catalogs, and previously published Xpercentile and PNICER extinction mapping techniques. We apply the approach to the VVV survey area, resulting in an extinction map that covers the Galactic disk between 295 and 350 degrees at longitude and -2 to 2 degrees at latitude, and the Galactic bulge between -10 and 5 degrees at latitude. The map has 30 arcseconds spatial resolution and it traces extinctions typically up to about 10-20 mag of visual extinction and maximally up to Av~30 mag. We compare our map to previous dust based maps, concluding that it provides a high-fidelity extinction-based map, especially in its ability to recover both the diffuse dust component of the Galaxy and moderately extincted giant molecular cloud regions. The map is especially useful as independent, extinction-based data on the Galactic dust distribution and applicable for a wide range of studies from individual molecular clouds to the studies of the Galactic stellar populations.