Related papers: Local Interstellar Matter: The view from Paris
Ultraviolet and optical spectra of interstellar gas along the lines of sight to nearby stars have been interpreted by Redfield & Linsky (2008) and previous studies as a set of discrete warm, partially ionized clouds each with a different…
The presence of dust in the intracluster medium (ICM) has been a long-standing problem that is still awaiting elucidation. Direct observational diagnostics are rather challenging (though not impossible) either because of a sparse…
Interstellar dust is still a dominant uncertainty in Astronomy, limiting precision in e.g., cosmological distance estimates and models of how light is re-processed within a galaxy. When a foreground galaxy serendipitously overlaps a more…
The ultraviolet and optical background forms a baseline for any observation of the sky. It includes emission lines and scattered light from the atmosphere; resonant scattering from the Lyman lines of interplanetary hydrogen and the…
Starlight that becomes linearly polarized by magnetically aligned dust grains provides a viable diagnostic of the interstellar magnetic field (ISMF). A survey is underway to map the local ISMF using data collected at eight observatories in…
Star formation is one of the least understood processes in cosmic evolution. It is difficult to formulate a general theory for star formation in part because of the wide range of physical processes involved. The interstellar gas out of…
Most of a galaxy's mass is located out to hundreds of kiloparsecs beyond its stellar component. This diffuse reservoir of gas, the circumgalactic medium (CGM), acts as the interface between a galaxy and the cosmic web that connects…
We present FUSE observations of the interstellar gas toward 30 white dwarf and 1 subdwarf (SdO) stars. These sightlines probe the Local Bubble (LB) and the local interstellar medium (LISM) near the LB. Our survey detected only diffuse H_2…
We present cosmological, radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of galaxy formation during the epoch of reionization in an effort towards modelling the interstellar medium (ISM) and interpreting ALMA observations. Simulations with and without…
The composition and physical properties of several local clouds, including the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) in which the Sun is embedded, are derived from absorption features in the UV spectrum of the star epsilon CMa. We derive…
The interstellar bubble RCW 120 seen around a type O runaway star is driven by the stellar wind and the ionising radiation emitted by the star. The boundary between the stellar wind and interstellar medium (ISM) is associated with the…
The Ulysses spacecraft has been orbiting the Sun on a highly inclined ellipse almost perpendicular to the ecliptic plane (inclination 79 deg, perihelion distance 1.3 AU, aphelion distance 5.4 AU) since it encountered Jupiter in 1992. The…
It is expected that as the Sun travels through the interstellar medium (ISM), there will be different filtration of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) that affect Earth. The effect of GCR on Earth's atmosphere and climate is still uncertain.…
The diffuse gas in and nearby the Milky Way plays an important role in the evolution of the entire Galaxy. It has a complex structure characterized by neutral, weakly and highly ionized gas, dust, and molecules. We probe this gas through…
Analysis of interstellar absorption lines observed in high-resolution {\em HST} spectra of nearby stars provides temperatures, turbulent velocities, and kinetic properties of warm interstellar clouds. Previous studies identified 15 warm…
The progressive mixing and contamination of interstellar gas by supernovae and other processes following the passage of a spiral density wave is reviewed, with an emphasis on the Solar neighborhood. Regions of star formation should begin…
An accurate estimate of the interstellar gas density distribution is crucial to understanding the interstellar medium (ISM) and Galactic cosmic rays (CRs). To comprehend the ISM and CRs in a local environment, a study of the diffuse…
Several radio-wave scintillation phenomena exhibit properties which are difficult to accommodate within the standard propagation model based on distributed Kolmogorov turbulence in the ionised ISM; here we discuss one such phenomenon,…
We present a pioneering model of the interaction between the solar wind and the surrounding interstellar medium that includes the possibility of different pressures in directions parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field. The outer…
We are living in a dusty universe: dust is ubiquitously seen in a wide variety of astrophysical environments, ranging from circumstellar envelopes around cool red giants to supernova ejecta, from diffuse and dense interstellar clouds and…