Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
We have analysed observations of the interstellar extinction in the range 3400 Å–l 1000 Å. The observations have high photometric accuracy and wavelength resolution, and allow a detailed examination of broadband structure as well as the general shape of the wavelength dependence of the extinction curve. The broadband structure has a characteristic size of several hundred ångströms, and may be as important as the diffuse bands in indicating the physical nature of the grains.
We describe our preliminary theoretical interpretation of this broadband structure, and the new observation which it predicts.