No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The FIRAS instrument on the COBE satellite has conducted an unbiased survey of the far-infrared emission from our Galaxy. The rst results of this survey were reported by Wright et al. (1991). We report the results of new analyses of this spectral survey, which includes emission lines from 158 m C + , 122 m and 205 m N + , 370 m and 609 m C 0 , and CO J=2-1 through 5-4. We report the morphological distribution along the galactic plane (b = 0 ) of the spectral line emission, and the high galactic latitude intensities of the C + and 205 m N + emission. In the galactic plane the 205 m line of N + generally follows the 158 m C + line distributions, but the intensities scale as I(N + 205 m) / I(C + 158 m) 1:5 towards the inner Galaxy. The high galactic latitude intensity of the 158 m ne structure transition from C + is I(C + 158 m) = (1:43 0:12) 10 6 csc jbj erg cm 2 s 1 sr 1 for jbj > 15 , and it decreases more rapidly than the far infrared intensity with increasing galactic latitude. C + and neutral atomic hydrogen emission are closely correlated with a C + cooling rate of (2:65 0:15) 10 26 erg s 1 H atom 1 . We conclude that this emission arises almost entirely from the Cold Neutral Medium. The high galactic latitude intensity of the 205 m ne structure transition from N + is I(N + 205 m) = (4 1) 10 8 csc jbj erg cm 2 s 1 sr 1 arising entirely from the Warm Ionized Medium. We estimate the total ionizing photon rate in the Galaxy to be = 3:5 10 53 ionizing photons per second, based on the 205 m N + transition.