The High-Velocity Clouds: Galactic or Extragalactic?
- van Woerden, H.
- Wakker, B. P.
- Schwarz, U. J.
- Peletier, R. F.
- Kalberla, P. M. W.
DOIAbstract
We present firm evidence that one of the major high velocity clouds (HVCs), Complex A, lies in the Milky Way Halo, at a vertical distance z = 3 - 7 kpc from the Galactic plane. For clouds MII/MIII, Danly et al. and Keenan et al. had already found z <5 kpc. We further report that the metallicity in the largest HVC, Complex C, is at least 0.1 solar. CaII/HI ratios in 6 HVCs, ranging from 0.002 to 0.07 times solar, set lower limits to their metallicities. Blitz et al. have recently suggested that most of the HVCs are relatively unprocessed, extragalactic remnants of the gas which formed the Local Group of galaxies. However, the results mentioned above indicate that several major HVC complexes are neither primordial nor extragalactic. For the s...
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