Observations of [C II] 158 Micron Line and Far-Infrared Continuum Emission toward the High-Latitude Molecular Clouds in Ursa Major

We report the results of a rocket-borne observation of the [C II] 158 μm line and far-infrared continuum emission at 152.5 μm toward the high-latitude molecular clouds in Ursa Major. We also present the results of a follow-up observation of the millimeter 12CO J = 1 → 0 line over a selected region observed by the rocket-borne experiment. We have discovered three small CO cloudlets from the follow-up 12CO observations. We show that these molecular cloudlets, as well as the MBM clouds (MBM 27, 28, 29, and 30), are not gravitationally bound. Magnetic pressure and turbulent pressure dominate the dynamic balance of the clouds. After removing the H I-correlated and background contributions, we find that the [C II] emission peak is displaced from the 152.5 μm and CO peaks, while the 152.5 μm continuum emission is spatially correlated with the CO emission. We interpret this behavior by attributing the origin of the [C II] emission to the photodissociation regions around the molecular clouds illuminated by the local UV radiation field. We also find that the ratio of the molecular hydrogen column density to the velocity-integrated CO intensity is 1.19 ± 0.29 × 1020 cm-2 (K km s-1)-1, from the FIR continuum and the CO data. The average [C II]/FIR intensity ratio over the MBM clouds is 0.0071, which is close to the all-sky average of 0.0082 reported by FIRAS on the COBE satellite. The average [C II]/CO ratio over the same regions is 420, significantly lower than in molecular clouds in the Galactic plane.