Search

Gamma-ray astrophysics depends in many ways on multiwavelength studies. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration has started multiwavelength planning well before the scheduled 2007 launch of the observatory. Some of the high-priority multiwavelength needs include: (1) availability of contemporaneous radio and X-ray timing of pulsars; (2) expansion of blazar catalogs, including redshift measurements; (3) improved observations of molecular clouds, especially at high galactic latitudes; (4) simultaneous broad-band blazar monitoring; (5) characterization of gamma-ray transients, including gamma ray bursts; (6) radio, optical, X-ray and TeV counterpart searches for reliable and effective sources identification and characterization. Several of these activities are needed to be in place before launch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the detection of a number of molecular clouds beyound the optical disk of the Galaxy. The two most distant of these objects were found to have kinetic temperatures similar to star-forming molecular clouds in the Solar neighborhood. Hα emission was detected from the most distant cloud (RGC=28 kpc) and a B 0.5 I star identified as the most likely source of ionization. The photometric distance to the star corroborates the location of the molecular and ionized gas beyond the optical disk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]