FEDReD III : Unraveling the 3D structure of Vela

Abstract

Context. The Vela complex is a region of the sky that gathers several stellar and interstellar structures in a few hundred square degrees. Aims. Gaia data now allows us to obtain a 3D view of the Vela interstellar structures through the dust extinction. Methods. We used the FEDReD (Field Extinction-Distance Relation Deconvolver) algorithm on near-infrared 2MASS data, cross-matched with the Gaia DR2 catalogue, to obtain a 3D cube of extinction density. We applied the FellWalker algorithm on this cube to locate clumps and dense structures. Results. We analysed 18 million stars on $450{\mathrm{deg}}^2$ to obtain the extinction density of the Vela complex from 0.5 to 8~kpc at $\ell\in[250\degr,280\degr]$ and $b\in [$-10$\degr,5\degr]$. This cube reveals the complete morphology of known structures and relations between them. In particular, we show that the Vela Molecular Ridge is more likely composed by three substructures instead of four, as suggested by the 2D densities. These substructures form the shell of a large cavity. This cavity is visually aligned with the Vela supernova remnant but located at a larger distance. We provide a catalogue of location, distance, size and total dust content of ISM clumps that we extracted from the extinction density cube.

15 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (12)

• Gaia Data Release 1: Catalogue validation
• Gaia-2MASS 3D maps of Galactic interstellar dust within 3 kpc
• The observed spiral structure of the Milky Way
• Three-dimensional mapping of the local interstellar medium with composite data
• A Compendium of Distances to Molecular Clouds in the Star Formation Handbook
• FellWalker - a Clump Identification Algorithm
• A 3D extinction map of the Northern Galactic Plane based on IPHAS photometry
• Mapping the Milky Way bulge at high resolution: the 3D dust extinction, CO, and X factor maps
• A large catalogue of molecular clouds with accurate distances within 4 kpc of the Galactic disk
• Hic sunt dracones: Cartography of the Milky Way spiral arms and bar resonances with Gaia Data Release 2
• FEDReD II : 3D Extinction Map with 2MASS and Gaia DR2 data
• FEDReD I: 3D extinction and stellar maps by Bayesian deconvolution

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• The chemical signature of the Galactic spiral arms revealed by Gaia DR3
• PHANGS-JWST First Results: The Dust Filament Network of NGC 628 and its Relation to Star Formation Activity
• The three-dimensional structure of Galactic molecular cloud complexes out to 2.5 kpc
• Distances to nearby molecular clouds traced by young stars
• Kinetic tomography of the Galactic plane within 1.25 kiloparsecs from the Sun. The interstellar flows revealed by HI and CO line emission and 3D dust
• Constraints on the history of Galactic spiral arms revealed by Gaia GSP-Spec alpha-elements
• Cluster aggregates surrounding Pismis 5 in the Vela Molecular Ridge
• Toward a 3D kinetic tomography of Taurus clouds: II. A new automated technique and its validation