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Science 25 August 1967:
Vol. 157. no. 3791, pp. 881 - 889
DOI: 10.1126/science.157.3791.881
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Articles

Radio Observations of Interstellar Hydroxyl Radicals

Have we discovered a gigantic maser, or could we be detecting interstellar communications?

Alan H. Barrett 1

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

The discovery of the radio frequency lines of OH gave the first positive evidence of the existence of OH in the interstellar medium. In the 3frac12 years that have intervened, many observations have revealed totally unexpected anomalies in the radio-spectral properties of interstellar OH. As a result, no reliable astrophysical information has been derived from the OH observations, but a large body of information is waiting to be unraveled. The interpretations of the data which have been made, such as the values derived for OH/H abundance ratios or for the kinetic temperatures of interstellar gas clouds, must be viewed with caution. They may turn out to be drastically in error, once the origin of the OH emission and absorption is fully understood.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Hydroxyl and Water Masers in Protostars.
M. M. Litvak (1969)
Science 165, 855-861
   PDF »
Radio Interferometry at One-Thousandth Second of Arc.
M. H. Cohen, D. L. Jauncey, K. I. Kellermann, and B. G. Clark (1968)
Science 162, 88-94
   PDF »
Radio Recombination Lines: A New Observational Tool in Astrophysics: A new observational approach to star formation and large-scale structure of our galaxy is discussed.
P. G. Mezger and P. Palmer (1968)
Science 160, 29-42
   PDF »


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