Interstellar dust infrared spectra

From these considerations we conclude that the failure of the emission spectrum of interstellar dust to vary as 1/A2 in the far infrared, which is predicted for small crystalline spheres, may be the result of either noncrystallinity or nonsphericity (or both). Therefore, the infrared emission spectrum may not prove to be as uniquely diagnostic of interstellar grain characteristics as it once was thought to be. 

The discovery of C60 by Kroto and coworkers (1985) was motivated in part by the interstellar dust problem. C60 would seem to be an ideal candidate, as it is spherical and graphite-like, it forms spontaneously in harsh environments with carbon dust, and is stable in intense radiation fields, a condition analogous to that found in the diffuse ISM (Kroto and Jura 1992). In fact, the observation of two DIBs at 957.7 and 963.2 nm are tentatively considered the first evidence of C60+ in interstellar dust (Foing and Ehrenfreund 1997). Moreover, a mixture of hydrides of C60 is shown to exhibit spectral features remarkably similar to those seen in the unidentified infrared emission (Stoldt et al. 2001). The UV absorption spectrum of synthetic C60H36 was also observed to possess abroad bump at 217.5 nm (Cataldo 2003). 

Duley, W.W., Williams, D.A., 1981. The infrared spectrum of interstellar dust-Surface functional groups on carbon. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 196, 269—274. 

Already the first infrared observations of late-type giant stars have revealed that many of them are indeed surrounded by thick dust shells (Woolf Ney 1969). These were rapidly found to consist of carbonaceous dust (some kind of soot) if the stellar spectrum indicates the star to be carbon-rich, and to be silicate dust (olivine, pyroxene) if the star is oxygen-rich (Gilman 1969). Since this dust is mixed into the interstellar medium due to mass loss by stellar winds, it was then assumed that silicate and carbon particles are abundant dust components in the interstellar medium. 

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