2018-02-08

dust

The highlight of my low-research day was a great seminar by Eddie Schlafly (LBL) about Milky Way dust. He showed that he can build three-dimensional models (and maybe four-dimensional, because radial-velocities are available) from PanSTARRS and APOGEE data (modeling stellar spectra and photometry) and he showed that he can even map the extinction curve in three dimensions! That reveals new structures. It is very exciting that in the near future we might be able to really build a dynamical model of the Milky Way with dust as a kinematic tracer. Also interesting to think about the connection to CMB missions. He showed a ridiculous Planck polarization map that I hadn't seen before: It looks like a painting!

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