Related papers: Unexplained Spectral Phenomena in the Interstellar…
The large observed redshift of quasars has suggested large cosmological distances and a corresponding enormous energy output to explain the brightness or luminosity as seen at earth. Alternative or complementary sources of redshift have not…
The unidentified infrared emission (UIE) features at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3 and 12.7 micron are ubiquitously seen in a wide variety of astrophysical regions and commonly attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules.…
Galactic interstellar dust has a profound impact not only on our observations of objects throughout the Universe, but also on the morphology, star formation, and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. The advent of massive imaging and…
We have made a new calculation of the cosmic ray electron spectrum using an anomalous diffusion model to describe the propagation of electrons in the Galaxy. The parameters defining the anomalous diffusion have been recently determined from…
The Galactic gamma-ray flux can be described as the sum of two components: the first is due to the emission from an ensemble of discrete sources, and the second is formed by the photons produced by cosmic rays propagating in interstellar…
In the interstellar medium of the Milky Way, certain elements -- e.g., Mg, Si, Al, Ca, Ti, Fe -- reside predominantly in interstellar dust grains. These grains absorb, scatter, and emit electromagnetic radiation, heat the interstellar…
Here we review our current knowledge on diffuse gamma-rays from galactic halos. Estimates of the relative contribution of the various emission processes at low and high latitudes are compared to the data over 6 decades in energy. The…
The interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies very often contains a gas component that reaches the temperature of several million degrees, whose physical and chemical properties can be investigated through imaging and spectroscopy in the…
The diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are ubiquitous absorption spectral features arising from the tenuous material in the space between stars -- the interstellar medium (ISM). Since their first detection nearly nine decades ago, over 400…
We found that at least 18 Young Stellar Object candidates invisible at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, as well as ^12CO emission. They are IRAS point sources with FIR colors similar to those of usual YSOs, and the infrared spectral…
We present a new phenomenological model for the spectral energy distribution of normal star-forming galaxies between 3 and 1100 microns. A sequence of realistic galaxy spectra are constructed from a family of dust emission curves assuming a…
The propagation length of high-energy photons through the Universe is limited by $e^+e^-$ pair production on the extragalactic background radiation. Previous studies reported discrepancies between predicted and observed attenuation,…
Here I present a somewhat personal review of the results of my research carried out in the last couple of decades, mostly focused on the fields of stellar astrophysics, the interstellar medium, and the high energy sources. They have been…
Published interpretations of the relative intensity variations of the Unidentified Infrared Bands (UIBs) and their underlying continuum are discussed. An alternative model is proposed, in which a single carrier for both emits a) mostly a…
A mid-infrared (3.6-8 um) survey of the Galactic Center has been carried out with the IRAC instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope. This survey covers the central 2x1.4 degree (~280x200 pc) of the Galaxy. At 3.6 and 4.5 um the emission is…
The enrichment of the intergalactic medium (IGM) with heavy elements provides us with a record of past star formation and with an opportunity to study the interactions between galaxies and their environments. We summarize current data…
Thanks to the advent of sensitive and broad bandwidth instrumentation, complex organic molecules (COMs) have been found in a wide variety of interstellar environments, not only in our Galaxy but also in external galaxies up to a redshift of…
The quest for other habitable worlds and the search for life among them are major goals of modern astronomy. One way to make progress towards these goals is to obtain high-quality spectra of a large number of exoplanets over a broad range…
Recently, the {\it{Fermi}} space telescope has discovered two large $\gamma$-ray emission regions, the so-called "Fermi bubbles", that extend up to $\sim 50^\circ$ above and below the Galactic center. The $\gamma$-ray emission from the…
It has recently become apparent that the background level of diffuse radio emission on the sky is significantly higher than the level that can result from known extragalactic radio source classes or our Galaxy given our current…