The 3.4-µm interstellar absorption feature
Abstract
Estimation of the organic component of interstellar grains has provoked considerable interest1,2. Recently Duley and Williams2 concluded from an absence of the 3.4-µm CH absorption band in obscured IR sources that organic compounds in grains account for <=10% of carbon in the interstellar medium. We report here the detection of a 3.4-µm absorption feature in three IR sources and hence argue that an appreciable mass fraction of interstellar grains are predominantly organic in character.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- October 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1038/287518a0
- Bibcode:
- 1980Natur.287..518W
- Keywords:
-
- Hydrocarbons;
- Infrared Absorption;
- Infrared Astronomy;
- Interstellar Extinction;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Stellar Spectra;
- Absorption Spectra;
- Optical Thickness;
- Stellar Spectrophotometry;
- Astrophysics