Interstellar dust spans a wide range in size distribution, ranging from ultrasmall grains of a few Angstroms to micrometer-size grains. While the presence of nanometer-size dust grains in the Galactic interstellar medium was speculated six decades ago and was previously suggested based on early infrared observations, systematic and direct analysis of their properties over a wide range of environments has been lacking. Here we report the detection of nanometer-size dust grains that appear to be universally present in a wide variety of astronomical environments, from Galactic high-latitude clouds to nearby star-forming galaxies and galaxies with low levels of nuclear activity. The prevalence of such a grain population is revealed conclusively as prominent mid-infrared continuum emission at wavelength short than 10μm seen in the Spitzer/IRS data, characterized by temperatures of ~300-400K that are significantly higher than the equilibrium temperatures of common, submicron-size grains in typical galactic environments. We propose that the optimal carriers of this pervasive, featureless hot dust component are very small carbonaceous (e.g., graphite) grains of nanometer size that are transiently heated by single-photon absorption. This grain population accounts for ~1.4% of the total infrared emission at ~5-3000μm and ~0.4% of the total interstellar dust mass.
We have used the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment 12 m telescope (APEX) to carry out an absorption study of submillimeter wavelength rotational ground-state lines of H35Cl, H37Cl, 13CH+, and, for the first time, of the SH+ radical (sulfoniumylidene or sulfanylium). We detected the quartet of ground-state hyperfine structure lines of SH+ near 683 GHz with the CHAMP+ array receiver against the strong continuum source Sagittarius B2, which is located close to the center of our Galaxy. In addition to absorption from various kinematic components of Galactic center gas, we also see absorption at the ra…
We present new observations of the (6,6) and (9,9) inversion transitions of the hydronium ion toward Sagittarius B2(N) and W31C. Sensitive observations toward Sagittarius B2(N) show that the high, ~ 500 K, rotational temperatures characterizing the population of the highly-excited metastable H3O+ rotational levels are present over a wide range of velocities corresponding to the Sagittarius B2 envelope, as well as the foreground gas clouds between the Sun and the source. Observations of the same lines toward W31C, a line of sight that does not intersect the Central Molecular Zone, but instead t…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic nitrogen heterocycles are thought to be widespread throughout the Universe, because these classes of molecules are probably responsible for the unidentified infrared bands, a set of emission features seen in numerous Galactic and extragalactic sources. Despite their expected ubiquity, astronomical identification of specific aromatic molecules has proven elusive. We present the discovery of benzonitrile ($c$-C$_6$H$_5$CN), one of the simplest nitrogen-bearing aromatic molecules, in the interstellar medium. We observed hyperfine-resolved t…
The sizes of interstellar grains are widely distributed, ranging from a few angstroms to a few micrometers. The ultraviolet (UV) and optical extinction constrains the dust in the size range of a couple hundredth micrometers to several submicrometers. The near and mid infrared (IR) emission constrains the nanometer-sized grains and angstrom-sized very large molecules. However, the quantity and size distribution of micrometer-sized grains remain unknown as they are gray in the UV/optical extinction and they are too cold and emit too little in the IR to be detected by IRAS, Spitzer, or Herschel. …
Cold molecular clouds are the birthplaces of stars and planets, where dense cores of gas collapse to form protostars. The dust mixed in these clouds is thought to be made of grains of an average size of 0.1 micrometer. We report the widespread detection of the coreshine effect as a direct sign of the existence of grown, micrometer-sized dust grains. This effect is seen in half of the cores we have analyzed in our survey, spanning all Galactic longitudes, and is dominated by changes in the internal properties and local environment of the cores, implying that the coreshine effect can be used to …
Nanodust, which undergoes stochastic heating by single starlight photons in the interstellar medium, ranges from angstrom-sized large molecules containing tens to thousands of atoms (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules) to grains of a couple tens of nanometers. The presence of nanograins in astrophysical environments has been revealed by a variety of interstellar phenomena: the optical luminescence, the near- and mid-infrared emission, the Galactic foreground microwave emission, and the ultraviolet extinction which are ubiquitously seen in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way an…
Using three dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transfer models of photoionisation and dust scattering, we explore different components of the widespread diffuse H$α$ emission observed in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and other galaxies. We investigate the relative contributions of H$α$ from recombination emission in ionised gas and H$α$ that originates in H{\sc ii} regions near the Galactic midplane and scatters off high altitude dust in the diffuse interstellar medium. For the radiation transfer simulations we consider two geometries for the interstellar medium: a three dimensional …
Image cubes of differential column density as a function of dust temperature are constructed for Galactic Centre molecular cloud G0.253+0.016 ("The Brick") using the recently described PPMAP procedure. The input data consist of continuum images from the Herschel Space Telescope in the wavelength range 70-500 $μ$m, supplemented by previously published interferometric data at 1.3 mm wavelength. While the bulk of the dust in the molecular cloud is consistent with being heated externally by the local interstellar radiation field, our image cube shows the presence, near one edge of the cloud, of a …
Dust particles play a major role in the formation, evolution and chemistry of interstellar clouds, stars and planetary systems. Commonly identified forms include amorphous and crystalline carbon-rich particles and silicates. Also present in many astrophysical environments are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), detected through their infrared emission, and which are essentially small flakes of graphene. Astronomical observations over the past four decades have revealed a widespread unassigned Extended Red Emission (ERE) feature which is attributed to luminescence of dust grains. Numerous …
Since their discovery in 1991, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) -- a novel one-dimensional carbon allotrope -- have attracted considerable interest worldwide because of their potential technological applications such as electric and optical devices. In the astrophysical context, CNTs may be present in the interstellar space since many of the other allotropes of carbon (e.g., amorphous carbon, fullerenes, nanodiamonds, graphite, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and possibly graphene as well) are known to be widespread in the Universe, as revealed by presolar grains in carbonaceous primitive meteorites …
The mid-infrared (IR; 5-15~$μ$m) spectrum of a wide variety of astronomical objects exhibits a set of broad emission features at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3 and 12.7 $μ$m. About 30 years ago it was proposed that these signatures are due to emission from a family of UV heated nanometer-sized carbonaceous molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), causing them to be referred to as aromatic IR bands (AIBs). Today, the acceptance of the PAH model is far from settled, as the identification of a single PAH in space has not yet been successful and physically relevant theoretical models invol…
On its journey through the Galaxy, the Sun passes through diverse regions of the interstellar medium. High-resolution spectroscopic measurements of interstellar absorption lines in spectra of nearby stars show absorption components from more than a dozen warm partially ionized clouds within 15 pc of the Sun. The two nearest clouds - the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) and Galactic (G) cloud - move toward each other. Their bulk heliocentric velocities can be compared with the interstellar neutral helium flow velocity obtained from space-based experiments. We combine recent results from Ulysses, …
We investigate models for the photoionization of the widespread diffuse ionized gas in galaxies. In particular we address the long standing question of the penetration of Lyman continuum photons from sources close to the galactic midplane to large heights in the galactic halo. We find that recent hydrodynamical simulations of a supernova-driven interstellar medium have low density paths and voids that allow for ionizing photons from midplane OB stars to reach and ionize gas many kiloparsecs above the midplane. We find ionizing fluxes throughout our simulation grids are larger than predicted by…
To study the usefulness of \CFP\ as a tracer of the regions where C\p\ and \HH\ coexist in the interstellar medium. We used the Plateau de Bure Interferometer to synthesize \CFP\ J=1-0 absorption at 102.6 GHz toward the core of the distant HII region W49N at l = 43.2\degr, b=0.0\degr, and we modeled the fluorine chemistry in diffuse/translucent molecular gas. We detected \CFP\ absorption over a broad range of velocity showing that \CFP\ is widespread in the \HH-bearing Galactic disk gas. Originally detected in dense gas in the Orion Bar and Horsehead PDR, \CFP\ was subsequently detected in abs…
In the interstellar medium, carbon (nano-)grains are a major component of interstellar dust. This solid phase is more vulnerable to processing and destruction than its silicate counterpart. It exhibits a complex, size-dependent evolution due to interactions within different radiative and dynamical environments. Infrared signatures of these nanocarbon grains are seen in a large number of disks around Herbig HAeBe stars. We probe the composition and evolution of carbon nano-grains at the surface of (pre-)transitional protoplanetary disks around Herbig stars. We present spatially resolved infrare…
The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey has opened new vistas on the Milky Way, including cold hydrogen clouds that bridge a critical gap between the classical diffuse interstellar medium and the gravitationally bound molecular clouds that can form stars. The CGPS and its fellow IGPS surveys revealed these transitional clouds to be surprisingly widespread as HI self-absorption (HISA) shadows against the Galactic HI emission background. The richness of the IGPS data allows detailed examination of HISA cloud spatial structure, gas properties, Galactic distribution, and correspondence with molecular g…
Ionized nebulae have been targets of interest since the introduction of the telescope centuries ago. These isolated, "classical" H II regions gave us some of the earliest insight into the copious feedback energy that stars inject into the interstellar medium. Their unique spectra contain information about the quality and quantity of the ionizing field as well as the temperature, density, and metallicity of these discrete locations in the Galaxy. With increasing sensitivity across many spectral domains, we now know that ionized gas is not localized to massive star regions in many star-forming g…
Understanding how the Galactic magnetic field threads the multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM) remains a considerable challenge, as different magnetic field tracers probe dissimilar phases and field components. We search for evidence of a common magnetic field shared between the ionized and neutral ISM by comparing 1.4 GHz radio continuum polarization and HI line emission from the Galactic Arecibo L-Band Feed Array Continuum Transit Survey (GALFACTS) and Galactic Arecibo L-Band Feed Array HI (GALFA-HI) survey, respectively. We compute the polarization gradient of the continuum emission and se…
Widespread detection of amorphous and crystalline water (H${}_{2}$O) ice in the outer solar system bodies and the interstellar medium has been confirmed over the past decades. Radiative transfer models (RTMs) are used to estimate the grain sizes of H${}_{2}$O ice from near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. Wide discrepancies in the estimation of H${}_{2}$O ice grain size on the Saturnian moons (Hansen, 2009), as well as nitrogen (N${}_{2}$) and methane (CH${}_{4}$) ices on Kuiper belt objects have been reported owing to different scattering models used (Emran and Chevrier, 2022). We assess the discr…
Frontiers of chemical complexity in the interstellar medium: unveiling the cosmic origins of life
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA（天体生物学中心（CAB），西班牙国家研究委员会-国家航空航天技术研究所）；INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri（意大利天文台协会阿切尔蒂天文台）；Niels Bohr Institute（尼尔斯·玻尔研究所）；University of Bordeaux（波尔多大学）；DCBP, Universität Bern（伯尔尼大学）；Univ. Grenoble Alpes（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学）；LUX, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS（巴黎天文台，法国国家科学研究中心）；ESO/JAO（欧洲南方天文台/联合天文办公室）；Univ. Toulouse, CNRS, IRAP（图卢兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心，天体物理学研究所在）；University of Sevilla（塞维利亚大学）；University of Lincoln（林肯大学）；UK Astronomy Technology Centre（英国天文技术中心）；ESO（欧洲南方天文台）；ICE-CSIC（空间科学与地球化学研究所，西班牙国家研究委员会）；Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学乔德雷尔银行天体物理学中心）；University of Cologne（科隆大学）；RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute（理化学研究所前沿研究机构）；Univ. Florida（佛罗里达大学）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Chinese Academy of Sciences South America Center for Ast（中国科学院南美天文中心）
Notwithstanding manufacture of complex organic molecules from impacting cometary and icy planet surface analogues is well-established, dust grain-grain collisions driven by turbulence in interstellar or circumstellar regions may represent a parallel chemical route toward the shock synthesis of prebiotically relevant species. Here we report on a study, based on the multi-scale shock-compression technique combined with ab initio molecular dynamics approaches, where the shock-waves-driven chemistry of mutually colliding isocyanic acid (HNCO) containing icy grains has been simulated by first-princ…
Herschel/HIFI observations have revealed the presence of widespread absorption by hydrogen fluoride (HF) J = 1-0 rotational transition, toward a number of Galactic sources. We present observations of HF J = 1-0 toward the high-mass star-forming region Sagittarius B2(M). The spectrum obtained shows a complex pattern of absorption, with numerous features covering a wide range of local standard of rest velocities (-130 to 100 km -1). An analysis of this absorption yields HF abundances relative to H2 of ~1.3 {\times}10-8, in most velocity intervals. This result is in good agreement with estimates …
We study the impact of relatively weak AGN feedback on the interstellar medium of intermediate and massive elliptical galaxies. We find that the AGN activity, while globally heating the ISM, naturally stimulates some degree of hot gas cooling on scales of several kpc. This process generates the persistent presence of a cold ISM phase, with mass ranging between 10$^4$ and $\gtrsim$ 5 $\times$ 10$^7$ M$_\odot$, where the latter value is appropriate for group centered, massive galaxies. Widespread cooling occurs where the ratio of cooling to free-fall time before the activation of the AGN feedbac…
NOEMA3D: Extended CO, [C I] and dust in massive star-forming main-sequence galaxies at cosmic noon
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik（马克斯·普朗克地外物理研究所）；University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)（毫米波射电天文研究所）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA)（马克斯·普朗克天体物理研究所）；University of Bologna（博洛尼亚大学）；INAF - Astrophysics and Space Science Observatory of Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所博洛尼亚天文与空间科学观测站）
