Interstellar Medium and Molecular Clouds

Interstellar space — the region between stars inside a galaxy — is home to clouds of gas and dust. This interstellar medium contains primordial leftovers from the formation of the galaxy, detritus from stars, and the raw ingredients for future stars and planets. Studying the interstellar medium is essential for understanding the structure of the galaxy and the life cycle of stars.

Our Work

Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian scientists study the interstellar medium and molecular clouds using various tools:

Using radio observations to identify the chemical makeup of dust clouds. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) is particularly suited to studying molecular clouds that are opaque to visible light. Researchers found signs of molecules closely linked to PAHs, indicating at least some of the dust is made up of organic molecules.
GBT Detection Unlocks Exploration of 'Aromatic' Interstellar Chemistry
Studying the physical properties of hot material in the ISM to understand its behavior. While much of the ISM is cold, some regions are hot enough to turn gas into a turbulent plasma. Astronomers compare observational results to theoretical calculations to understand what might be making the hot ISM behave the way it does.
The Turbulent Interstellar Medium
Tracing interstellar gas in distant galaxies to understand the environment for star formation early in the Sun’s history. Even though individual stars and gas clouds are too tiny to be seen from cosmological distances, astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to measure emissions from interstellar carbon from a galaxy that formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
The Interstellar Medium A Billion Years After the Big Bang
Mapping the positions of molecular clouds in the Milky Way to trace its structure. Molecular clouds follow the arms of spiral galaxies. Using the Millimeter-Wave Telescope on the roof of the CfA and its twin instrument in Chile, astronomers discovered two previously-unknown spiral arms in our galaxy.
A New, Distant Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy & Milky Way's Inner Beauty Revealed

The Contents of Interstellar Space

Most of the space between stars is much emptier than the best vacuum we can make in a lab on Earth. However, it’s not truly empty: the interstellar medium (ISM) is complex, with a variety of physical processes governing its behavior. This is the place where stars are born, and where stars recycle their atoms when they die.

Hydrogen and helium make up about 98% of the mass of the ISM, with the remaining 2% being heavier elements like carbon, oxygen, and other elements astronomers call “metals”. Most of these atoms are in the form of gas, but about half of the heavier elements form dust: relatively large grains composed of carbon-containing molecules. These include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which on Earth are often produced by burning organic matter: their smell is the smell of charred hamburger on a grill. Even though dust only makes up about 1% of the ISM, it’s very good at absorbing visible light, particularly toward the blue end of the spectrum. As a result, starlight shining through a cloud of dust appears redder, and sometimes can be blocked entirely. For that reason, astronomers study these dust clouds in radio and infrared light, which passes through dust clouds more easily.

The ISM is made up of many parts:

Roughly half of interstellar gas is spread out through 98% of the space between stars. Though this “intercloud gas” is incredibly low density, it’s heated by the light from stars. The hottest part of the ISM can reach millions of degrees, and even the cooler parts are hotter than the surface of the Sun. The low density means intercloud gas only emits low levels of visible light. The hot ISM produces a diffuse X-ray glow, while hydrogen in the warm intercloud gas emits radio light with a wavelength of 21 centimeters (8.3 inches). This 21 cm emission allows researchers to map much of the hydrogen in galaxies, and even measure how fast galaxies rotate.
The other half of interstellar gas is compressed into 2% of the volume, and forms interstellar clouds. Most of these clouds are cold but still relatively low in density, which means hydrogen atoms don’t meet up to form molecules.
The densest interstellar clouds are the molecular clouds. Molecular clouds are very dense by ISM standards, and very cold: only about 10º above absolute zero. The most common component of these clouds is molecular hydrogen (H2). Other molecules include carbon monoxide (CO) — which astronomers often use to trace molecular cloud structure — and organic compounds such as methanol. While dust is present throughout the ISM, their concentrations are high enough in molecular clouds to make the clouds appear like a black opaque splotch. Molecular clouds range greatly in size and density, from small clouds less than a light-year across up to the giant molecular clouds (GMCs), which are over 100 light-years across and contain enough material to make several hundred thousand stars.
The densest, most opaque molecular clouds are where stars are born; when something disturbs the cloud, it can cause the gas and dust to collapse under its own gravity.

shock wave passing through the interstellar medium

The rapidly-moving giant star Zeta Ophiuchi produces a shock wave in the interstellar dust, as seen in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech