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Nanodiamonds in space

Extended Red Emission, or ERE, a mysterious astronomical effect in which regions of diffuse red light are observed in planetary nebulae and in the galactic halo, comes from nanodiamonds in space. So say Huan-Cheng Chang and his colleagues at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C., they reported the results of a recent experiment. As they suspected that ERE was analogous to the operation of a fluorescent lamp---where ultraviolet light is converted into visible light when it strikes a coating inside the lamp tube.

In the experiment, nanometer-sized diamonds, first filled with defects by hitting the diamonds with a powerful proton beam, then heated to a temperature of 800 degrees Celsius to create conditions roughly matching those of space. When yellow and blue light was shone on the nanodiamonds, ERE-type luminescence resulted. The diamonds presumably would have been made in the vicinity of carbon-rich stellar zones. One example of such emission, in the proto-planetary nebula HD 44179, also called "The Red Rectangle," can be seen here. Further discussion of the Red Rectangle was provided by Boston University astronomer Kenneth Brecher.

(www.aip.org)

 
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