Interstellar extinction in the direction of the Aquila Rift

• Published in: Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) Vol. 405; no. 2; pp. 585 - 590
• Main Authors: Straižys, V., Černis, K., Bartašiūtė, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 01.07.2003
• Subjects: extinction; ISM: clouds; ISM: dust; ISM: individual objects: Aquila Rift; ISM: individual objects: Serpens molecular cloud; stars: fundamental parameters
• ISSN: 0004-6361; 1432-0746
• DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20030599

The distance dependence of interstellar extinction in the direction of the Aquila Rift is investigated using 473 stars observed in the Vilnius photometric system. The front edge of the dark clouds in the area is found to be at $225\pm55$ pc and the thickness of the cloud system is about 80 pc. The maximum extinction AV in the clouds is close to 3.0 mag. Two stars with larger extinction are found and discussed. Since the new distance of the clouds is larger than the previously accepted distance, the cloud system mass should be increased to $2.7\times10^5~M_{\odot}$ which is close to the virial mass estimated from the CO velocity dispersion. Additional arguments are given in favor of the genetic relation between the Serpens and the Scorpio-Ophiuchus dark clouds.