Intensity of interstellar Lyman alpha

B. T. Draine, E. E. Salpeter

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

TARAFDAR and Wickramasinghe1 suggested that the Lyman alpha (Lα) intensity in the interstellar medium may be in the range (1-4) × 10-4 erg cm -2 s-1 sr-1 and have pointed out that, if this is the case, Lα may play an important part in photoemission from interstellar grains. Here we argue that typical Lα intensities in interstellar HI are significantly less than 1 × 10 -4 erg cm -2 s-1 sr-1, considering three principal sources: photoionised HII regions; shock-heated gas; and collisional excitation and recombination in interstellar HI.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)730-731
Number of pages2
JournalNature
Volume271
Issue number5647
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 1978
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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