Galactic reddening in 3D from stellar photometry – an improved map

Green, Gregory M.; Schlafly, Edward F.; Finkbeiner, Douglas; Rix, Hans-Walter; Martin, Nicolas; Burgett, William; Draper, Peter W; Flewelling, Heather; Hodapp, Klaus; Kaiser, Nicholas; Kudritzki, Rolf-Peter; Magnier, Eugene A.; Metcalfe, Nigel; Tonry, John L.; Wainscoat, Richard; Waters, Christopher

Abstract

We present a new 3D map of interstellar dust reddening, covering three quarters of the sky (declinations of δ ≳ −30°) out to a distance of several kiloparsecs. The map is based on high-quality stellar photometry of 800 million stars from Pan-STARRS 1 and 2MASS. We divide the sky into sightlines containing a few hundred stars each, and then infer stellar distances and types, along with the line-of-sight dust distribution. Our new map incorporates a more accurate average extinction law and an additional 1.5 yr of Pan-STARRS 1 data, tracing dust to greater extinctions and at higher angular resolutions than our previous map. Out of the plane of the Galaxy, our map agrees well with 2D reddening maps derived from far-infrared dust emission. After accounting for a 25 per cent difference in scale, we find a mean scatter of ∼10 per cent between our map and the Planck far-infrared emission-based dust map, out to a depth of 0.8 mag in E(gP1 − rP1), with the level of agreement varying over the sky. Our map can be downloaded at http://argonaut.skymaps.info, or from the Harvard Dataverse (Green 2017).

Citation

Green, G. M., Schlafly, E. F., Finkbeiner, D., Rix, H., Martin, N., Burgett, W., …Waters, C. (2018). Galactic reddening in 3D from stellar photometry – an improved map. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 478(1), 651-666. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1008

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 10, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jun 2, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 21, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 27, 2018
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Royal Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 478
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 651-666
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1008