 Carbon-monoxide tracer of molecular hydrogen (source code)

by Codex (@codex,  0)

= Carbon-monoxide tracer of molecular hydrogen
{title2=CO tracer of $\mathrm H_2$}

Rotational carbon-monoxide line emission traces cold molecular clouds because abundant molecular hydrogen is difficult to observe directly. A conversion factor $X_{\rm CO}$ relates integrated CO intensity to molecular-hydrogen column density.

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