while the surrounding regions have F$_{240}\approx$5 MJy sr$^{-1}$. It is clear that (a) the DIRBE data indicate a region of low FIR emission surrounded by enhanced emission, and (b) the feature is real, because it appears on more than one DIRBE map. The lowest values of the FIR flux originate presumably from the zodiacal light that was not subtracted from the AASMs and from the cosmic FIR background. As both these components are much smoother than the feature we describe here, there is no need to model them in detail.

IRAS
----

The peculiar FIR features detected by COBE/DIRBE are confirmed by IRAS measurements. The IRAS mission mapped the sky in four wavelength bands from January 1983 to November 1983. The primary goal of the IRAS survey was the detection of point sources, but a catalog of extended sources has also been produced, as well as sky brightness images in each of the four bands with 2’ pixels and 4’-6’ resolution (Beichman 1988).

IRAS 60 and 100$\mu$m Extended Emission Data in the 16$^{\circ}.5\times16^{\circ}.5$ square fields no. 83 and 84 were used to confirm the existence of the ring and to exclude the possibility of instrumental artefacts produced by the COBE/DIRBE 