Abstract
We report the detection of photodissociated H I toward the reflection nebula NGC 2023. The Very Large Array observations reveal compact (~ 0.3 pc) emission associated with the source. The observed spectrum has a double-peaked profile that we believe is caused by absorbing foreground neutral gas. We corrected the observed spectrum for the absorption, and determined with this absorption-corrected profile an H I column density and mass of 1.7 ×1021 cm-2 and 1.2 Modot, respectively. This column density agrees well with theoretical model predictions. The H I 21 cm map shows a morphology very similar to that present in the images of [C II] at 158 μm, HIRES 60 μm IRAS, and POSS optical.
