Related papers: The Diffuse Interstellar Bands: A Major Problem in…
The identification of the carrier(s) of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) is one of the oldest mysteries in stellar spectroscopy. With the advent of 8-10m-class telescopes substantial progress has been made in measuring the properties of…
In this paper, we present new data with interstellar C2 (Phillips bands A-X), from observations made with the Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph of the European Southern Observatory. We have determined the interstellar column densities…
The study of protostellar collapse or infall has proven unusually difficult and controversial. Some historical context will be provided, against which recent advances can be measured. We now have a substantial number of objects with…
Circumstellar disks play an important role in many stages of the evolution of stars. However, it is only possible to directly image circumstellar disks for a few of the nearest stars. For massive stars, the situation is even more difficult,…
We are using five different surveys to compile the largest sample of diffuse interstellar band (DIB) measurements ever collected. GOSSS is obtaining intermediate-resolution blue-violet spectroscopy of ~2500 OB stars, of which 60% have…
ABRIDGED: Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are faint spectral absorption features of unknown origin. Research on DIBs beyond the Local Group (LG) will surely blossom in the era of the ELTs. A possibility that needs to be explored is the…
We study, for the first time, the relations of two strong diffuse bands (DIBs) at 9633 and 9577~\AA, commonly attributed to C$_{60}^+$, to other interstellar features seen in optical and UV spectra including H{\sc i}, Ca{\sc i}, Fe{\sc ii},…
Astronomical microwave spectroscopy has greatly broadened the inventory of identifiable chemical species in diffuse molecular gas and is an increasingly effective way to measure the abundances of polar molecules that may be candidate…
Spectroscopy is one of the most important tools that an astronomer has for studying the universe. This chapter begins by discussing the basics, including the different types of optical spectrographs, with extension to the ultraviolet and…
A group of 72 members of the astrochemistry and spectroscopy communities assembled at Emory University in October, 2012, to discuss the state-of-the art in molecular laboratory spectroscopic techniques used to study molecules of…
Problems solved? Pulsar research must be considered - 35 years after the detection of pulsars - a mature science, where the basic questions have been raised and discussed. One would hope that many if not all generic and important problems…
$C_2$ molecule is sometimes considered as a crucial component of carriers of some diffuse interstellar bands. Using UV data achieved by spectrometer STIS fed with HST we detected interstellar $C_2$ lines for few reddened target stars. We…
We present a review of the interplay between the evolution of circumstellar disks and the formation of planets, both from the perspective of theoretical models and dedicated observations. Based on this, we identify and discuss fundamental…
Nine lectures reviewing the astrophysics of dust in interstellar clouds. Topics include: (1) Summary of observational evidence concerning interstellar dust: broadband extinction, scattering of starlight, polarization of starlight,…
The molecular carriers of the ubiquitous absorption features called the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) have eluded identification for many decades, in part because of the enormous parameter space spanned by the candidates and the limited…
The interstellar medium is a multi-phase, magnetized, and highly turbulent medium. In this paper, we address both theoretical and observational aspects of plasma turbulence in the interstellar medium. We successively consider radio wave…
Potential vibrational modes associated with diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) could be discerned by examining energy differences between correlated DIBs. Consequently, $\approx 10^3$ higher correlated DIB pairs ($r-\sigma_r \ge 0.8$, $\ge…
This investigation is aimed at clarifying the nature of the interstellar gas seen in absorption against bright O and B stars. Towards this end we have obtained for the first time HI absorption spectra towards radio sources very close to the…
Diffuse interstellar bands are usually observed in spectra of hot stars, where interstellar lines are rarely blended with stellar ones. The need for hot stars is a strong limitation in the number of sightlines we can observe and the…
Whilst astronomy as a science is historically founded on observations at optical wavelengths, studying the Universe in other bands has yielded remarkable discoveries, from pulsars in the radio, signatures of the Big Bang at submm…