Observational Evidence for a Thick Disk of Dark Molecular Gas in the Outer Galaxy

Abstract

We present the serendipitous discovery of an extremely broad (Δ V LSR ∼ 150 km s −1 ), faint ( T mb < 10 mK), and ubiquitous 1667 and 1665 MHz ground-state thermal OH emission toward the second quadrant of the outer Galaxy ( R gal > 8 kpc) with the Green Bank Telescope. Originally discovered in 2015, we describe the redundant experimental, observational, and data quality tests of this result over the last five years. The longitude–velocity distribution of the emission unambiguously suggests large-scale Galactic structure. We observe a smooth distribution of OH in radial velocity that is morphologically similar to the H i radial velocity distribution in the outer Galaxy, showing that molecular gas is significantly more extended in the outer Galaxy than previously expected. Our results imply the existence of a thick (−200 pc < z < 200 pc) disk of diffuse ( n H 2 ∼ 5 × 10 −3 cm −3 ) molecular gas in the outer Galaxy previously undetected in all-sky 12 CO surveys.