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On the existence and the density of intergalactic dust
Author(s) -
Schmidt K.H.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.19742950402
Subject(s) - intergalactic dust , intergalactic travel , astrophysics , physics , extinction (optical mineralogy) , redshift , intergalactic medium , flux (metallurgy) , astronomy , cosmic cancer database , galaxy , optics , chemistry , organic chemistry
Abstract A relation between the redshift z of QSO's and their colour index ( B–V )' corrected for line emission and galactic absorption is interpreted in terms of an intergalactic selective extinction. The observed amount of extinction corresponds to a density of intergalactic dust grains of about 10 −34 to 10 −33 g cm −3 at z = 0. The life‐time of these particles are estimated to be longer than the Hubble ‐time at present. But at large z the life‐time of the grains considerably depends on the flux density of cosmic rays. Some implications of the existence of intergalactic dust are discussed.