Probe of The Milky Way's Hidden Gas: First Results from SPLASH

Abstract

SPLASH (the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl) is a deep survey of ground-state OH absorption and emission from the Galactic Plane, as well as an unbiased search for OH masers. Key early results include the detection of a rich and complex distribution of diffuse, optically thin OH with strongly non-thermal excitation temperatures, and the detection of numerous new maser sources. The survey aims to use OH as a probe of CO-dark H2 ISM Galactic scales, with future plans including comprehensive comparisons with CO and Hi, as well as non-LTE excitation modelling of the four ground-state lines.