08-07-2016, 07:10 PM
I missed this one from a few weeks ago, it's from the CFHT. The language is a little strange but suspect it was written by a non-English speaker. The image of diffuse clouds in space is beautiful:
http://cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/GalacticCirrus/
The term cirrus comes from about three decades ago after the first infrared survey of the sky was made by IRAS. These diffuse clouds are still a bit of a mystery and contain some molecules we still can't identify (google "diffuse interstellar bands" if you are interested) although we now know a couple of the molecules are ionized Buckminsterfullerenes (C60).
Just to be clear, the rest of the atoms and molecules in these clouds are easily identifiable, but there are spectroscopic features that have remained a mystery for several decades.
ETA: Added some clarification.
http://cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/GalacticCirrus/
The term cirrus comes from about three decades ago after the first infrared survey of the sky was made by IRAS. These diffuse clouds are still a bit of a mystery and contain some molecules we still can't identify (google "diffuse interstellar bands" if you are interested) although we now know a couple of the molecules are ionized Buckminsterfullerenes (C60).
Just to be clear, the rest of the atoms and molecules in these clouds are easily identifiable, but there are spectroscopic features that have remained a mystery for several decades.
ETA: Added some clarification.