Carbon plays key roles in the InterStellar Medium (ISM) — as a constituent of dust, as the carrier of the dominant far-infrared cooling line, and as a component of various […]
![Plot of predicted peak [Cii] absorption opacity, τ (peak) [CII] , that would be observed at instrumental velocity resolution, against the integration time required to detect that absorption at S/N = 10. Points are plotted for FIRSST, PRIMA, SALTUS, and Origins proposed FIR telescopes. For each telescope, we plot values corresponding to the 402 diffuse-ISM candidate sightlines identified in Section 2.2.. Additionally highlighted is the region of parameter space occupied by the 3 sightlines targeted by our SOFIA-upGREAT study; these values correspond to the predicted/notional values given in Table 1 (as both observed sightlines returned null results, due to instrumental or astrophysical artefacts). We mark the parameter space where observations should be most plausible (as discussed in Section 5). Integration times incorporate any additional time required or sky observations of off positions either side of the target sightline. -- astro-ph.GA](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Measuring-Interstellar-Carbon-Abundance.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Carbon plays key roles in the InterStellar Medium (ISM) — as a constituent of dust, as the carrier of the dominant far-infrared cooling line, and as a component of various […]