A Face-on View of Interstellar Dust in the Galactic Plane
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Interstellar dust is a fundamental component of the Milky Way, influencing star formation, galactic evolution, and observations across the electromagnetic spectrum. Using red clump stars selected from near- and mid-infrared photometry, together with stellar catalogs from previous studies, we construct dust density maps of the Galactic plane (∣ Z ∣ < 25 pc) covering the full 360° in longitude and reaching distances up to 7 kpc. By applying a U-Net convolutional neural network to invert the line-of-sight extinction distribution, we obtain dust density maps at resolutions of 10, 50, and 100 pc, which reveal detailed structures including spiral arms, inter-arm spurs, and giant cavities. The dust distribution in the Galactic plane exhibits a morphology closely resembling that of the so-called Phantom galaxy M74. The derived exponential scale length of the Galactic dust disk is 2.90 kpc, slightly larger than that of the stellar thin disk. Our publicly available dust maps provide a new benchmark for extinction correction, studies of Galactic structure, and the investigation of the interplay between star formation and the interstellar medium.
Source: The Astronomical Journal
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,499
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, California Institute of Technology, European Space Agency, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province, Yunnan University, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles
Awards: G134794633, G2562502170, G3288964804
OpenAlex ID: W7204271644