The Copernicus observations: interstellar or circumstellar material?
Abstract
It is suggested that the sharp absorption lines observed in the ultraviolet spectra of early-type stars by the Copernicus satellite may be entirely accounted for by the circumstellar material in the H II regions and associated transition zones around the observed stars. If this interpretation is correct, the Copernicus results yield little information on the state of any interstellar (as opposed to circumstellar) gas and, in particular, shed little light on the degree of element depletion in interstellar space.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- June 1975
- DOI:
- 10.1086/153636
- Bibcode:
- 1975ApJ...198..575S
- Keywords:
-
- Absorption Spectra;
- Early Stars;
- Spaceborne Astronomy;
- Stellar Envelopes;
- Stellar Spectra;
- Ultraviolet Spectra;
- Cosmic Rays;
- H Ii Regions;
- Hydrogen Ions;
- Interstellar Radiation;
- Astrophysics