THE ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL      VOLUME 105, NUMBER 1, PAGE 258       JANUARY 1993

              INTRACLUSTER DUST POLARIZATION IN THE CARINA NEBULA

                                 H. G. MARRACO

  Facultad de Ciencias Astronomicas y Geofisicas, Universidad Nacional de La
   Plata, 1900 La Plata, Argentina and Instituto de Astronomia y Fisica del
                          Espacio, CONICET Argentina

                                  E. I. VEGA

  Complejo Astronomico "El Leoncito" and Instituto de Astronomia y Fisica del
                          Espacio, CONICET Argentina

                                  F. J. VRBA

 U.S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station, P.O. Box 1149, Flagstaff, Arizona
                                     86002


                                   ABSTRACT

    We have obtained new UBVRI polarimetric observations of 25 stars and BV
    polarimetric observations of 60 stars which are embedded in the Carina
    Nebula.  Using these data and photometric data from the literature we
    have modeled and subtracted the foreground dust contribution in the
    color excess E(B-V) and the visual polarization.  The resulting
    intracluster dust component is found to have a polarization efficiency
    less than the maximum observed for the interstellar medium.  The
    intracluster dust is also characterized by a ratio of E(V-K)/E(B-V) to
    Lambda(max) higher than the canonical value for the interstellar
    medium.  This result is consistent with the anomalous extinction for
    this region, reported by Tapia et al. [MNRAS, 232, 661 (1988a)], which
    increases above normal values color excess ratios that are normalized
    at wavelengths shorter than the V band.