Interstellar O/sub 2/. II. VUV oscillator strengths of Schumann-Runge lines and prospects for space telescope observations
Interstellar molecular oxygen should be detectable in interstellar clouds through observations of its absorption lines in the spectra of background stars. This paper describes and presents the results of measurements of oscillator strengths for some lines in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrum of O/sub 2/. Lines of the (13,0) through (16,0) bands of the B /sup 3/..sigma../sup -//sub u/-X/sup 3/..sigma../sup -//sub g/, Schumann-Runge system between 1760 A and 1790 A will be the most suitable for searches for absorption by interstellar O/sub 2/ with the High Resolution Spectrograph on Space Telescope. The strongest lines in these bands have oscillator strengths of about 3 x 10/sup -5/. The strongest interstellar cloud absorption features will be lines with froughly-equal 1.5 x 10/sup -5/ that will have equivalent widths of about 13 mA in dark interstellar clouds with O/sub 2/ column densities of 10/sup 17/ cm/sup -2/, such as that in front of HD 29647.
- Research Organization:
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- OSTI ID:
- 6978388
- Journal Information:
- Astrophys. J.; (United States), Journal Name: Astrophys. J.; (United States) Vol. 277:2; ISSN ASJOA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ABSORPTION SPECTRA
COSMIC GASES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
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MOLECULES
NONMETALS
OSCILLATOR STRENGTHS
OXYGEN
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SPECTRAL DENSITY
SPECTRAL FUNCTIONS
ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRA