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Observations of Water and Molecular Oxygen in the Interstellar Gas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

David A. Neufeld
David A. Neufeld*
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218

Abstract

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Water and molecular oxygen are two simple molecules which are not easily observed in the interstellar medium. O2 emissions have yet to be detected from interstellar space, and H2O has been observed only in rather special environments where the interstellar gas has been warmed by embedded infrared sources or by shock waves. This sorry state of affairs does not necessarily reflect a low interstellar abundance for these species, but rather is a consequence of the very high abundance of O2 and H2O within our own atmosphere: strong atmospheric absorption lines make it extremely difficult to carry out observations of water and molecular oxygen emissions using ground-based or even airborne telescopes. Future observations from two orbiting telescopes scheduled for launch in the coming five years - the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) and the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) - promise to improve radically the observational data on H2O and O2.

Type
Chemistry of Interface Regions
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 150: Astrochemistry of Cosmic Phenomena , 1992 , pp. 335 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1992 

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