Related papers: Local Interstellar Matter: The view from Paris
Speculations that encounters with interstellar clouds modify the terrestrial climate have appeared in the scientific literature for over 85 years. This article introduces a series of articles that seek to give substance to these…
Contrary to popular belief, the interstellar medium (ISM) is not empty; it is filled with atoms, dust particles, and molecules. Some of these molecules may have been the very building blocks of life that, delivered to Earth via comets and…
We offer a new, more inclusive, picture of the local interstellar medium, where it is composed of a single, monolithic cloud that surrounds the Sun in all directions. Our study of velocities based on Mg II and Fe II ultraviolet absorption…
The cloud-scale density, velocity dispersion, and gravitational boundedness of the interstellar medium (ISM) vary within and among galaxies. In turbulent models, these properties play key roles in the ability of gas to form stars. New high…
Molecular hydrogen (H2) is the primary component of the reservoirs of cold, dense gas that fuel star formation in our galaxy. While the H2 abundance is ultimately regulated by physical processes operating on small scales in the interstellar…
The interstellar medium is the engine room for galactic evolution. While much is known about the conditions within the ISM, many important areas regarding the formation and evolution of the various phases of the ISM leading to star…
The properties of the Local Bubble, Local Fluff complex of nearby interstellar clouds, and the heliosphere are mutually constrained by data and theory. Observations and models of the diffuse radiation field, interstellar ionization, pick-up…
The interstellar medium (ISM) is a fundamental component of the Milky Way. Studying its chemical composition and the level of its chemical diversity gives us insight into the evolution of the Milky Way and the role of gas in the Galactic…
A range of astronomical data indicates that ancient supernovae created the galactic environment of the Sun and sculpted the physical properties of the interstellar medium near the heliosphere. In this paper we review the characteristics of…
This paper describes some interesting properties of waves in, and oscillations of, the interstellar medium in the direction normal to the plane of the Galaxy. Our purpose is to examine possible reasons for four observed phenomena: the…
This paper deals with the heating and the ionization of the interstellar medium (ISM) in the 500 central pc of the Milky Way (hereafter Galactic center, GC). We review the results of the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) observations of a…
The heliosphere is the magnetic structure formed by the Sun's atmosphere extending into the local interstellar medium (ISM). The boundary separating the heliosphere from the ISM is a still largely unexplored region of space. Even though…
To investigate the interstellar medium (ISM) and Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) in the solar neighborhood, we analyzed ${\gamma}$-ray data by Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) for five nearby molecular cloud regions. Our data includes the…
The wavelength range 912-2000A (hereafter far-UV) provides access to absorption lines of the interstellar medium (ISM), circumgalactic medium (CGM), and intergalactic medium (IGM) in phases spanning a wide range of ionization, density,…
Knowledge of the molecular component of the ISM is fundamental to understand star formation. The H2 component appears to dominate the gas mass in the inner parts of galaxies, while the HI component dominates in the outer parts. Observation…
Interstellar dust appears in a number of roles in the interstellar medium. Historically, the most familiar one is as a source of extinction in the optical. Absorbed optical and ultraviolet light heats the dust, whence infrared (including…
This review covers four current questions in the behavior of the atomic and molecular interstellar medium. These include whether the atomic gas originates primarily in cold streams or hot flows onto galaxies; what the filling factor of cold…
The solar wind (SW) and local interstellar medium (LISM) are turbulent media. Their interaction is governed by complex physical processes and creates heliospheric regions with significantly different properties in terms of particle…
This is a brief review of our understanding of the properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) in dwarf galaxies in connection to their star formation activity. What are the dominant phases of the ISM in these objects? How do the properties…
In this investigation, we present an analysis of the metallicity distribution that pertains to neutral gas in the local Galactic interstellar medium (ISM). We derive relative ISM metallicities for a sample of 84 sight lines probing diffuse…