SEDIGISM, a survey with the APEX telescope, studies molecular clouds and star formation in the inner galaxy
An international research team including a number of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, used the APEX submillimeter telescope in 5100 m altitude in Chile to map an extended part of the Southern Galactic plane covering an area of more than 80 square degrees.
Spectral lines emitted from several molecules, including the rare isotopologues 13CO and C18O of the carbon monoxide molecule, probed the moderately dense component of the interstellar medium. The resulting survey, called SEDIGISM (Structure, Excitation and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic Interstellar Medium), reveals a wide range of structures, from individual star-forming clumps to giant molecular clouds and complexes.
This survey allows us to constrain the large-scale distribution of cold molecular gas in the inner Galaxy and ultimately unravel the structure of the Milky Way.
James Urquhart was a lead author of one of three papers that have been published in Monthly Notices of the RAS.
The publication of this work has been accompanied with the following press releases:
Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
A movie of the survey can be found here.