Discovery of molecular hydrogen in a high-velocity cloud of the Galactic halo

P. Richter, K. S. de Boer, H. Widmann, N. Kappelmann, W. Gringel, M. Grewing, J. Barnstedt

Published 1999-11-24Version 1

We report the discovery of molecular hydrogen absorption in a Galactic high-velocity cloud (HVC) in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud. For the same HVC we derive an iron abundance which is half of the solar value. Thus, all evidence points to a Galactic origin for high-velocity cloud complex in front of the LMC.