New Experimental Possibilities and Future Prospects for 1-5μm Infrared Spectroscopy of Interstellar Molecules

Extract

During the past week we have heard a considerable number of papers dealing with spectroscopic observations in the 1-5μm region of the infrared. I predict that as instruments and detectors continue to improve, such observations will play a major role in the study of interstellar molecules in both molecular clouds and circumstellar clouds around evolved stars. Fourier Transform spectrometers and Fabry Perot interferometers have already yielded spectra of such sources with spectral resolution and radial velocity precision fully comparable to millimeter wave observations. The critical need is to improve the limiting magnitude of such observations by 3-5 stellar magnitudes so that one can study large numbers of sources rather than the few brightest in each class.