Abstract
IT has been suggested1 that the interstellar extinction might be explained by assuming that the interstellar dust is composed of an appropriate size distribution of diamond particles. The imaginary part of the index of refraction of diamond increases sharply from near zero to about 1.0 at λ−1 = 5.0 µm−1, giving an albedo near unity in the visible and strong extinction in the ultraviolet, as required by recent observations.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Saslaw, W. C., and Gaustad, J. E., Nature, 221, 160 (1969).
Wickramasinghe, N. C., Nature, 222, 154 (1969).
Kimura, H., Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan, 14, 374 (1962).
Phillipp, H. R., and Taft, E. A., Phys. Rev., 127, 159 (1962).
Boggess, A., and Borgman, J., Astrophys. J., 140, 1636 (1964).
Stecher, T. P., Astrophys. J., 142, 1683 (1965).
Stecher, T. P., Astrophys. J. Lett., 157, L125 (1969).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
LANDAU, R. Diamonds and the Interstellar Extinction Curve. Nature 226, 924 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/226924a0
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/226924a0
This article is cited by
-
Interstellar diamonds in meteorites
Nature (1987)
-
The interrelationship between cosmic dust and the microwave background
Astrophysics and Space Science (1975)
-
Accretion and electrostatic interaction of interstellar dust grains; Interstellar grit
Astrophysics and Space Science (1973)
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.