The Far-Ultraviolet Dust Albedo in the Upper Scorpius Subgroup in the Sco OB2 Association

K. D. Gordon, A. N. Witt, G. R. Carruthers, S. A. Christensen, & B. C. Dohne 1994, ApJ, 432, 641

During NRL's Far Ultraviolet Cameras experiment on STS-39, four images of the giant reflection nebula encompassing the Upper Scorpius subgroup of the Sco OB2 association were obtained in two ultraviolet bandpasses with lambda_eff = 1362 Å and 1769 Å. From these images and IUE and TD-1 stellar spectra, the ratio of nebular to stellar flux was calculated. The ratio ranged from 0.577 to 0.921 at 1362 Å; and 0.681 to 0.916 at 1769 Å with the spread in the ratio arising mainly from uncertainties in the sky background. In order to analyze these images, a model utilizing Monte Carlo techniques to describe radiative transfer in a spherical nebula with asymmetrically distributed stars was developed by elaborating on previous work by Witt (1977). This model was used to determine the range of albedos reproducing the observed nebular-to-stellar flux ratios while allowing the scattering phase function asymmetry to vary between 0.0 and 0.8. The resulting albedos were between 0.47 and 0.70 at 1362 Å and between 0.55 and 0.72 at 1769 Å.

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