O VI High Velocity Clouds: Where and What are They?

Abstract

Our view of the high velocity cloud (HVC) system is changing dramatically with new observations from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer mission and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. In particular, the detection of O VI absorption indicates that many HVCs have a hot, collisionally-ionized component in addition to the neutral gas detected in H I 21cm emission. A better understanding of the ionization of this gas will help to determine the distances of some HVCs, as well as constrain the properties of a hot Galactic corona or Local Group medium. In this article, I briefly summarize some recent observations of O VI HVCs.