Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Are there organic grains in the interstellar medium?

Nature volume 277, pages 40–41 (1979)Cite this article

Abstract

THE possibility that organic compounds exist in or on interstellar grains has received much attention recently. It has been suggested that grains consist of polysaccharides1, carbonaceous compounds2 or aggregates of a variety of organic compounds3. While it is easy to visualise how some of these materials could form in the interstellar medium (for example, by the random accretion of C, N, O and H) it is not certain that appreciable quantities of such grains actually exist. With the availability of high quality infrared (IR) spectra of a variety of sources we show here how to determine the fraction of interstellar carbon bound in complex molecules of this sort.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hoyle, F. & Wickramasinghe, N. C. Nature 268, 610 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Knacke, R. F. Nature 269, 132 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Smith, D. & Adams, N. G. Astrophys. J. Lett. 220, L87 (1978).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Allen, C. W. Astrophysical Quantities 3rd edn (Athlone, London, 1973).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Szymanski, H. A. Interpreted Infrared Spectra (Plenum, New York, 1964).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Wexler, A. S. Appl. Spectros. Rev. 1, 29 (1968).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. McMillan, R. S. Bull. Am. Astr. Soc. 9, 583 (1977).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Merrill, K. M., Russell, R. W. & Soifer, B. T. Astrophys. J. 207, 763 (1976).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics Department, York University, Toronto, Canada

    W. W. DULEY

  2. Mathematics Department, UMIST, Manchester, UK

    D. A. WILLIAMS

Authors
  1. W. W. DULEY
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D. A. WILLIAMS
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

DULEY, W., WILLIAMS, D. Are there organic grains in the interstellar medium?. Nature 277, 40–41 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/277040a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/277040a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing