No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2016
There is increasing observational evidence that hot, highly-ionized interstellar and intergalactic gas plays a significant role in the evolution of galaxies in the local universe. Recent observations from several ultraviolet and X-ray observatories have been used to study the highly ionized high velocity cloud system in the vicinity of the Galaxy, the hot gaseous corona of the Galaxy, and highly ionized absorption-line systems at low redshift. The primary spectral diagnostics of this warm-hot interstellar/intergalactic medium are ultraviolet and X-ray absorption lines of O vi and O vii. The observational data fit well into the framework of current theories for the evolution of large-scale structure in the universe, which predict that a significant fraction of the baryonic material at low redshift is contained in highly ionized intergalactic gas. In this paper, I summarize some of the recent highlights of spectroscopic observations of the hot baryons in the local universe.