The Remarkable High Pressure of the Local Leo Cold Cloud

Abstract

Using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope, we have obtained high-resolution ultraviolet spectra of the C I absorption toward two stars behind the Local Leo Cold Cloud (LLCC). At a distance (~20 pc) that places it well inside the Local Bubble, the LLCC is the nearest example of the coldest known (T~20 K) diffuse interstellar clouds. The STIS measurements of the C I fine-structure excitation toward HD 85259 and HD 83023 indicate that the thermal gas pressure of the LLCC is much greater than that of the warm clouds in the Local Bubble. The mean LLCC pressure measured toward these two stars (60,000 cm${}^{-3}$ K) implies an H I density of ~3000 cm${}^{-3}$ and a cloud thickness of ~200 AU at the 20 K cloud temperature. Such a thin, cold, dense structure could arise at the collision interface between converging flows of warm gas. However, the measured LLCC pressure is appreciably higher than that expected in the colliding cloud interpretation given the velocity and column density constraints on warm clouds in the HD 85259 and HD 83023 sightlines. Additional STIS measurements of the Zn II, Ni II, and Cr II column densities toward HD 85259 indicate that the LLCC has a modest "warm cloud" dust depletion pattern consistent with its low dust-to-gas ratio determined from H I 21 cm and 100 micron observations. In support of the inferred sheet-like geometry for the LLCC, a multi-epoch comparison of the Na I absorption toward a high-proper-motion background star reveals a 40% column density variation indicative of LLCC Na I structure on a scale of ~50 AU.

40 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (4)

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• The Birth of Molecular Clouds: Formation of Atomic Precursors in Colliding Flows
• Direct Measurement of the Ratio of Carbon Monoxide to Molecular Hydrogen in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium
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