Interstellar extinction toward the ultradeep Galactic field of the Chandra observatory from 2MASS data

Abstract

We have measured the interstellar extinction in the region of ultradeep Galactic-field observations by the Chandra telescope ( l, b) _s13_s178776_s19 0.1-1.42 using photometric data from the 2MASS infrared allsky survey. The angular resolution of our interstellar extinction map is 1_s14.8. We show that the interstellar extinction has a minimum, A_V ˜ 3.4, near the center of the Chandra field of view and increases to A_V ˜ 5.8-6 at the edge of the field of view. In addition, we show that the bulk of the extinction is gained in the Galactic disk and is approximately the same for all bulge stars. Our results will be subsequently used to process the Chandra data and to estimate the properties of the stellar population in this region.