FAR-ULTRAVIOLET OBSERVATIONS OF THE OPHIUCHUS REGION WITH SPEAR

Abstract

We present the first far-ultraviolet (FUV; 1370-1670 angstrom) image of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud region, observed with the SPEAR imaging spectrograph. The flux levels of the diffuse FUV continuum are in reasonable agreement with those of the Voyager observations in the shorter FUV wavelengths (912-1216 angstrom), provided that the diffuse FUV emission is dominated by the spectra from late O-and early B-type stars. The observed region of the present study was divided into five subregions according to their FUV intensities, and the spectrum was obtained for each subregion with prominent H-2 fluorescent emission lines. A synthetic model of the H-2 fluorescent emission indicates that the molecular cloud has more or less uniform physical parameters over the Ophiuchus region, with a hydrogen density n(H) of 500 cm(-3) and a H-2 column density N(H-2) of 2 x 10(20) cm(-2). It is notable that the observed diffuse FUV continuum is well reproduced by a single-scattering model with scattered starlight from the dust cloud located at similar to 120-130 pc, except at a couple of regions with high optical depth. The model also gives reasonable properties of the dust grains of the cloud with an albedo a of 0.36 +/- 0.20 and a phase function asymmetry factor g of 0.52 +/- 0.22.