Interstellar hydrogen

Sometimes a star explodes in a supernova cast mg debris into interstellar space This debris includes the elements formed during the life of the star and these elements find their way into new stars formed when a cloud of matter collapses in on itself Our own sun is believed to be a second generation star one formed not only from hydrogen and helium but containing the elements formed in earlier stars as well... 

Comparison with the empirical Equation (1.4) shows that = /re /S/z eg and that n" = 2 for the Balmer series. Similarly n" = 1, 3, 4, and 5 for the Lyman, Paschen, Brackett and Pfimd series, although it is important to realize that there is an infinite number of series. Many series with high n" have been observed, by techniques of radioastronomy, in the interstellar medium, where there is a large amount of atomic hydrogen. For example, the (n = 167) — ( " = 166) transition has been observed with V = 1.425 GFIz (1 = 21.04 cm). 

The hydrogen atom and its spectrum are of enormous importance in astrophysics because of the large abundance of hydrogen atoms both in stars, including the sun, and in the interstellar medium. 

C05-0108. Moiecular clouds composed mostly of hydrogen molecules have been detected in interstellar space. The molecular density in these clouds is ab What is the pressure in such a cloud ... 

The radio detection of a small molecule formed of three carbons and two hydrogens by Thaddeus et al. [1] in 1985 came as a surprize to all astrochemists cyclopropenylidene C3H2, last bom to the small world of detected interstellar species was soon to become famous, though competition is high in this world where exotism is common. 

The first step in interstellar chemistry is the production of diatomic molecules, notably molecular hydrogen. Observations of atomic hydrogen in dense clouds show that this species cannot be detected except in a diffuse halo surrounding the cloud, so that an efficient conversion of H into H2 is necessary. In the gas phase this might be accomplished by the radiative association reaction,... 

According to present-day concepts, our solar system was formed from a huge gas-dust cloud several light years across in a side arm of the Milky Way. The particle density of this interstellar material was very low, perhaps 108-1010 particles or molecules per cubic metre, i.e., it formed a vacuum so extreme that it can still not be achieved in the laboratory. The material consisted mainly of hydrogen and helium with traces of other elements. The temperature of the system has been estimated as 15 K. 

As an example, we shall discuss the interstellar synthesis of a compound which is produced on Earth in millions of tons per year methanol. This simplest alcohol was obtained by Robert Boyle in 1661 from the dry distillation of wood. In the molecular clouds of the universe, it is likely that hydrogenation of CO on the surface of dust particles occurs according to the following scheme (Tielens and Charnley, 1997) ... 

As already mentioned, hydrogen cyanide is formed in simulation experiments using reducing primeval atmospheres. CN was discovered in interstellar space as early as 1940 by optical spectroscopy (Breuer, 1974), and later HCN itself (from measurements using millimetre wavelengths). Only a few years after the Miller-Urey experiments, Kotake et al. (1956) obtained HCN in good yields by reacting methane with ammonia over aluminium-silicate contacts ... 

A recent success in the detection of H species has been that of the molecular ion H3+. All of the models of ion-molecule chemistry in hydrogen-dominated regions are controlled by reactions of H3+ but until recently the H2+ molecular ion had not been detected. However, the modes of vibration of H3"1" provide for an allowed IR transition at 3.668 pin used for its detection. These ro-vibrational transitions have now been observed in a number of places, including the interstellar medium and in the aurorae of Jupiter. Not all astronomical detection and identification problems have been solved, however, and the most annoying and compelling of these is the problem of diffuse interstellar bands. 

H2C0, HCN, HC0+, HCC, C3N, C4H. The high density and temperature of black interstellar clouds facilitates a richer chemistry in which molecules such as dimethyl ether and ethyl alcohol are formed [1]. Figure 1 summarizes the carbon compounds which have been found in interstellar space and their abundances relative to hydrogen. Note that the carbon compounds decrease in abundance with increasing complexity. 

Assuming a cosmic-ray confinement time of 106 7 years and an interstellar hydrogen density of 1 atom cm-3, with present-day CNO abundances, use Eq. (9.10) to deduce Q/W for beryllium. 

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