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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2016
We recently reported the first detection of the deuterium Balmer series in emission in H II regions, performed at the CFHT (Hébrard et al. 2000a) and at the VLT (Hébrard et al. 2000b). These narrow lines are excited by UV continuum fuorescence and arise at the atomic interface between H II regions and molecular clouds.
Following this discovery, we used the CFHT with the Gecko spectrograph to observe Balmer lines in planetary nebulae. The non-detection of the deuterium Balmer lines in planetary nebulae represents the first observational evidence that this isotope was, as expected, destroyed in the parent stars.