Planck Early Results: Thermal dust in Nearby Molecular Clouds

Understand

Planck allows unbiased mapping of Galactic sub-millimetre and millimetre emission from the most diffuse regions to the densest parts of molecular clouds.

• We present an early analysis of the Taurus molecular complex, on line-of-sight-averaged data and without component separation.
• The emission spectrum measured by Planck and IRAS can be fitted pixel by pixel using a single modified blackbody.
• Some systematic residuals are detected at 353 GHz and 143 GHz, with amplitudes around -7 % and +13 %, respectively, indicating that the measured spectra are likely more complex than a simple modified blackbody.