Introduction
The Mopra Carbon Monoxide Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane
This wiki provides information about the molecular gas survey of the southern galactic plane being conducted with the Mopra millimetre-wave telescope in Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia. The survey is designed to map the distribution and dynamics of the carbon monoxide molecule (CO) along a 35 degree sector of the Galactic Plane, from l=305-340 degrees. The principal scientific motivation is to understand how molecular clouds are formed in space. The data will be combined with similar survey data collected on the sub-millimetre neutral carbon line (C) with the Nanten2 telescope in Chile, and the terahertz ionized carbon line (C+) from the balloon-borne Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory (STO) in Antarctica, so as to build a picture of the distribution and motion of the principal forms of carbon in the interstellar medium. Taken together, these three species will provide a picture of where and how molecular clouds are being formed over many kilo-parsecs of our Galactic Plane.
