Dust distribution in L1217/L1219: Nice vs. Nicer

Abstract

The dust in molecular clouds reliably traces the molecular gas within. We used this assumption to get an estimate of the dense cores size and mass in L1217/L1219 by deriving the total optical extinction, and therefore, the total column density. In this, two methods were used, the "standard" Near Infrared Color Excess (NICE) and the Near-Infrared Color Excess Revisited (NICER). Results confirm that NICER is better in tracing the low level extinction areas, consequently making the total cloud's mass significantly larger, as compared to the NICE derived value.

Keywords

• ISM: clouds
• dust
• extinction