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Himalayan Science Center
Jorpati-1, Kathmandu, Nepal
Email: himalayansciencecenter@gmail.com, phone: 9841060665
Website: himalayansciencecenter.org, Facebook: Himalayan Science Center
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 Intersetllear Space

Star A Star B

Figure 1.1 Shown in the figure are two typical stars of our milky way galaxy. The
space between the stars is called interstellar space. Is the interstellar space mostly
empty or is there something?

Now you know that beyond our solar system there are lots of stars scattered throught the vast space
of our galaxy. As you have already learned that the stars are separated from each other by the immense
distance that is beyond our comprehension. That immense space that lies between the star system is called
Interstellar Space. One question may arise at this point. Is the interstellar space completely empty or is there
something? Astronomers for long time belived that intersetllar space was mostly empty except for few local-
ized pockets of glowing gas and dust clouds. But it all changed

Astronomers now know that the interstellar medium is far from empty. It is invisible to us because it
doesn’t radiate visible light. It is filled with extremely cold (nearly 1Kelvin) and rarified gas and dust (most-
ly hydrogen) whose average density is just one atom per cubic centimeter. 99 percent of ISM is gas and only
one percent is dust by volume. ISM is also not uniformaly distributed throughout the galaxy. In some regions
of the vast expanse of interstellar space ,lies localized pockets of gas and dust whose density is higher than
average. Such regions are called interstellar clouds or Nebulae. Such matter that lies between the stars is
called Interstellar medium or ISM for short. The matter of interstellar space is extremely tenuous by terres-
tial standards and its temperature is not uniform. In some parts of interstellar space, the matter is extremely
cold reaching a temperature of only 1kelvin(that’s just one degrees above absolute zero) while in other parts
temperature can rise upto 10 kelvin. In cool, dense region of ISM, matter is primarily in molecular form, and
the number densities can reach upto 1 million atoms per cubic centimeter. In hot, diffuse region of ISM, mat-
ter is primarily in ionic form, and the number densities can be as low as 10-4 ions per cubic centimeter. For
comparsion the density of air at sea level on Earth is nearly 1019 atoms per cubic centimeter while the best
vaccum that scientists have created on earth has the density of 1010 atoms per cubic centimeter. So, interstel-
lar space is nearly empty by Earthly standards, nevertheless it is not completely deviod of any matter. This
Why are some parts of ISM hot while others are cool?
The amount of dust and gas in ISM is so low that if we collect all the matter of ISM covering the size of
the Earth, we would barely have enough matter to make a pair of a die. Despite such low density of gas and
dust in ISM, over sufficiently large distance, enough gas and dust accumulate to the point where it can block
visible light and other short wavelength radiation coming from distant sources.

Density is simply the number of particles per unit volume of space. Over sufficiently large distances volume
of space increases so much that extremely rarified gas and dust accumulates atoms by atoms to the point
where it can block visible light and other short wavelength radiation coming from distant sources and in the
vicinity of the sun there is as much mass in the form of gas and dust as there in the stars themselves. Sun
infact is iteself a part of the interstellar medium, in fact entire solar system including Earth and we ourselves
are a part of the interstellar medium. The Sun with its family of planets along with numerous other smaller
bodies of astounding diversity is located somewhere near to the center of a huge cavity probably carved by
an ancient exploding supernova. The boundary of the cavity contains heated gas which radiate in high ener-
gy ultravoilet radiation. Sun along with is nearby stars Alpha Centauri, Sirius, Vega, Procyon, Alderaban and
Arcatrus and star cluster of hydes is located in low density region. May be the force from the shockwave of
exploding supernova more than five billion years ago compressed the gas and triggered the rapid rate of star
formation across the vast region of premordial solar nebula(As the shockwave moved away from the super-
nova, force of it alternately compressed the region of gas and dust, it was just like a wave moving across the
surface of` water when water is struck by a stone). Th ripple of shockwave moved across the dark, cold and
vast region of gas and dust that existed some (say) 7 billion years ago. On its way it compressed the gas and
dust which triggered the fragmentation of that interstellar cloud we call promirdial solar nebula.

The composition of gas in ISM is well known from the spectroscopic studies of the interstellar absorption
line. The composition of gas ISM is almost similar to the composition of Sun, Stars and gaseous planets

A star has an epic life.

Infact the story of discovery of interstellar matter goes as far as 1700s when Sir William Herschel
noted that the stars in the sky are not uniformly distributed. There were certain patches in the skies which
contains little or no stars at all. Herschel called them “holes in the heavens”. It was the year 1904 when an
astronomer named Hartman was studying the spectra of a system of binary star system. He noticed that the
wavelength of stellar absorption lines shifted periodically as expected from the fact that sometimes the star
move towards us and sometimes farther from us on its course of going around the common center of mass
of two stars. The stellar absorption lines were blue shifted when it appraoched towards us and was red shifted
when the star moved away from us. This was totally normal. But in addition to this he noticed two absorp-
tion lines of netrual sodium atoms and singly ionized calcium atoms in the spectra of the star that didn’t
moved at all. He concluded that these fixed absorption lines do not belong to the stars but were coming
from the matter that lies between the stars and us. A truly remrakable discovery in the history of astronomy.
Hartman was the first man in the history to know that the space between the stars was not empty at all as
previously thought. But his dicovery was largely ignored by the astronomical community because like other
people astronomer at that time used to believe that space between the stars was empty.
Our Milky Way Galaxy Our Milky Way Galaxy Our Milky Way Galaxy
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