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Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are absorption features seen in the spectra of astronomical objects in the Milky Way and other galaxies. They are caused by the absorption of light by the interstellar medium. More than 400 bands have now been seen, in ultraviolet, visible and infrared wavelengths. The origin of DIBs was unknown and disputed for many years, and the DIBs were long believed to be due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other large carbon-bearing molecules. However, no agreement of the bands could be found with laboratory measurements or with theoretical calculations until July 2015, when the group of John Maier (University of Basel) announced the unequivocal assignment of two lines for C60+, confirming a prediction made in 1987.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.kroto.info/dibs/ )〕 ==Discovery and history== Much astronomical work relies on the study of spectra - the light from astronomical objects dispersed using a prism or, more usually, a diffraction grating. A typical stellar spectrum will consist of a continuum, containing absorption lines, each of which is attributed to a particular atomic energy level transition in the atmosphere of the star. All astronomical objects are affected by extinction, the absorption of photons by the interstellar medium. Interstellar absorption predominantly affects the whole spectrum in a continuous way, rather than causing absorption lines, but in 1922 astronomer Mary Lea Heger〔 〕 first observed a number of line-like absorption features which seemed to be interstellar in origin. Their interstellar nature was shown by the fact that the strength of the observed absorption was roughly proportional to the extinction, and that in objects with widely differing radial velocities the absorption bands were not affected by Doppler shifting, implying that the absorption was not occurring in or around the object concerned.〔 〕〔 〕〔 〕 The name Diffuse Interstellar Band, or DIB for short, was coined to reflect the fact that the absorption features are much broader than the normal absorption lines seen in stellar spectra. The first DIBs observed were those at wavelengths 578.0 and 579.7 nanometres. (Visible light corresponds to a wavelength range of 400 - 700 nanometers). Other strong DIBs are seen at 628.4, 661.4 and 443.0 nm. The 443.0 nm DIB is particularly broad at about 1.2 nm across - typical intrinsic stellar absorption features are 0.1 nm or less across. Later spectroscopic studies at higher spectral resolution and sensitivity revealed more and more DIBs; a catalogue of them in 1975 contained 25 known DIBs, and a decade later the number known had more than doubled. The first detection-limited survey was published by Peter Jenniskens and Xavier Desert in 1994 (see Figure above),〔 〕 which led to the first conference on The Diffuse Interstellar Bands at the University of Colorado in Boulder on May 16–19, 1994. Today over 300 have been detected. In recent years, very high resolution spectrographs on the world's most powerful telescopes have been used to observe and analyse DIBs.〔 〕 Spectral resolutions of 0.005 nm are now routine using instruments at observatories such as the European Southern Observatory at Cerro Paranal, Chile, and the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Australia, and at these high resolutions, many DIBs are found to contain considerable sub-structure.〔 〕〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Diffuse interstellar bands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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