Slavery in contemporary Africa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_contemporary_Africa

The continent of Africa is one of the regions most rife with contemporary slavery. Slavery in Africa has a long history, within Africa since before historical records, but intensifying with the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trade and again with the trans-Atlantic slave trade; the demand for slaves created an entire series of kingdoms (such as the Ashanti Empire) which existed in a state of perpetual warfare in order to generate the prisoners of war necessary for the lucrative export of slaves. These patterns persisted into the colonial period during the late 19th and early 20th century. Although the colonial authorities attempted to suppress slavery from about 1900, this had very limited success, and after decolonization, slavery continues in many parts of Africa despite being technically illegal.

Slavery in the Sahel region (and to a lesser extent the Horn of Africa) exists along the racial and cultural boundary of Arabized Berbers in the north and darker Africans in the south. Slavery in the Sahel states of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan in particular, continues a centuries-old pattern of hereditary servitude. Other forms of traditional slavery exist in parts of Ghana, Benin, Togo and Nigeria. There are other, non-traditional forms of slavery in Africa today, mostly involving human trafficking and the enslavement of child soldiers and child labourers, e.g. human trafficking in Angola, and human trafficking of children from Togo, Benin and Nigeria to Gabon and Cameroon.

Modern day slavery in Africa according to the Anti-Slavery Society includes exploitation of subjugate populations even when their condition is not technically called "slavery":

Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their "employers".

— Antislavery Society, What is Modern Slavery?

Forced labor in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated at 660,000. This includes people involved in the illegal diamond mines of Sierra Leone and Liberia, which is also a direct result of the civil wars in these regions. In 2017, the International Labour Office estimated that 7 in every 1,000 people in Africa are victims of slavery.

Types of contemporary slavery

Hereditary slavery and corporate child labor in Africa

Sex trade

Main article: Sex slavery

While institutional slavery has been banned worldwide, there are numerous reports of female sex slaves in areas without an effective government control, such as Sudan and Liberia, Sierra Leone, northern Uganda, Congo, Niger and Mauritania. In Ghana, Togo, and Benin, a form of (forced) religious prostitution known as trokosi ("ritual servitude") forcibly keeps thousands of girls and women in traditional shrines as "wives of the gods", where priests perform the sexual function in place of the gods.

Forced labour

Forced labor, which –strictly speaking– can be different from slavery, is defined as any work or services which people are forced to do against their will under the threat of some form of punishment. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the indigenous people are usually victims of their Bantu neighbors, who have replaced the positions once held by Arabs and Europeans.

We must work for the Bantu masters. We cannot refuse to do so because we are likely to be beaten or be victims of insults and threats. Even though we agree to work all day in the fields, we are still asked to work even more, for example, to fetch firewood or go hunting. Most of the time, they pay us in kind, a worn loincloth for 10 workdays. We cannot refuse because we do not have a choice.

— Antislavery Society, Interview with an indigenous man in the Congo

Child slave trade

Further information: Human trafficking in Nigeria, Human trafficking in Benin, and Human trafficking in Togo

The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin. The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20–70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.

In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female students from Chibok, Borno. More than 50 of them soon escaped, but the remainder have not been released. Instead, the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, who has a reward of $7 million offered by the United States Department of State since June 2013 for information leading to his capture, announced his intention of selling them into slavery.

Ritual slavery

Main article: Ritual servitude

Ritual servitude (Trokosi) is a practice in Ghana, Togo, and Benin where traditional religious shrines take human beings, usually young virgin girls, in payment for services, or in religious atonement for alleged misdeeds of a family member—almost always a female. In Ghana and in Togo, it is practiced by the Ewe people in the Volta Region, and in Benin, it is practiced by the Fon.

Slavery by country

Chad

Main article: Slavery in Chad

The practice of slavery in Chad, as in the Sahel states in general, is an entrenched phenomenon with a long history, going back to the trans-Saharan slave trade in the Sahelian kingdoms, and it continues today. As elsewhere in Central and West Africa, the situation reflects an ethnic, racial and religious rift. IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad by their parents due to poverty.

Congo

Debt bondage-like slavery is rife in parts of Congo. According to the Global Slavery Index, approximately, over one million people are enslaved in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ethiopia

Main article: Human trafficking in Ethiopia

Mahider Bitew, Children's Rights and Protection expert at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, says that some remote studies conducted in Dire Dawa, Shashemene, Awassa, and three other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study, about one thousand children were trafficked via Dire Dawa to countries of the Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom were forced to be prostitutes after leaving the country. The International Labour Organization has identified prostitution as the worst form of child labor.

In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor, and to work as domestic servants or beggars. The ages of these children are usually between 10 and 18, and their trafficking is from the country to urban centers and from cities to the country. Boys are often expected to work in activities such as herding cattle in rural areas and in the weaving industry in Addis Ababa and other major towns. Girls are expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare, and looking after the sick, and to work as prostitutes.

Ghana, Togo, Benin

Main articles: Human trafficking in Ghana, Human trafficking in Benin, and Human trafficking in Togo

In parts of Ghana among the Ewe people, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family. In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife". In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. This system of slavery is sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana), or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude. Young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests, in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.

Many Chinese prostitutes are trafficked to Ghana to service expatriate communities in the country, the Enslavement Protection Alliance-West Africa (EPAWA) investigations reveal. The Accra-based non-governmental organization told Citi Newsroom that victims are recruited under the guise of working as restaurant assistants. They are then confined and forced to provide sexual services.

Madagascar

Domestic servitude and forced labor are a continuing problem and increasing as a result of exacerbated poverty in Madagascar, according to a 2012 mission by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for contemporary forms of slavery. The UN Special Rapporteur identified children as particularly vulnerable and was particularly concerned about the enslavement of youth in mining and sexual exploitation or servile marriages.

Mali

Main article: Slavery in Mali

Slavery continues to exist in Mali in all ethnic groups of the country but particularly among the Tuareg communities. The French formally abolished slavery in 1905, but many slaves remained with their masters until 1946 when large emancipation activism occurred. The first government of independent Mali tried to end slavery, but these efforts were undermined with the military dictatorship from 1968 until 1991. Slavery persists today with thousands of people still held in servitude; however, an active social movement called Temedt (which won the 2012 Anti-Slavery International award) has been pressuring the government for ending slavery in the country.

Although the Malian government denies that slavery continues, National Geographic writer Kira Salak claimed in 2002 that slavery was quite conspicuous and that she herself bought and then freed two slaves in Timbuktu. In addition, with the 2012 Tuareg Rebellion, there are reports of ex-slaves being recaptured by their former masters.

Mauritania

Main article: Slavery in Mauritania

According to the Global Security Index Mauritania has one of the highest rates of vulnerability to slavery, ranking at number 4 in the region. A system exists now by which Arab Muslims—the bidanes—own black slaves, the haratines. An estimated 90,000 Mauritanians remain essentially enslaved. The ruling bidanes (the name means literally white-skinned people) are descendants of the Sanhaja Berbers and Beni Hassan Arab tribes who emigrated to northwest Africa and present-day Western Sahara and Mauritania during the Middle Ages. According to some estimates, up to 600,000 Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour. Slavery in Mauritania was criminalized in August 2007. Malouma Messoud, a former Muslim slave has explained her enslavement to a religious leader:

"We didn't learn this history in school; we simply grew up within this social hierarchy and lived it. Slaves believe that if they do not obey their masters, they will not go to paradise. They are raised in a social and religious system that everyday reinforces this idea."

In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been banned by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues. Moreover, according to Amnesty International:

Not only has the government denied the existence of slavery and failed to respond to cases brought to its attention, it has hampered the activities of organizations which are working on the issue, including by refusing to grant them official recognition.

Imam El Hassan Ould Benyamin of Tayarat in 1997 expressed his views about earlier proclamations ending slavery in his country as follows:

[it] is contrary to the teachings of the fundamental text of Islamic law, the Quran ... [and] amounts to the expropriation from Muslims of their goods; goods that were acquired legally. The state, if it is Islamic, does not have the right to seize my house, my wife or my slave.

Biram Dah Abeid, often called the Mauritanian Nelson Mandela, "Le Spartacus Mauritanien", an anti-slavery activist and member of the Haratin ethnic group in Mauritania argues that

there is a kind of informal coalition – Beydanes [the slave owning caste], the state, police, judges, and imams – that prevents slaves from leaving their masters. "Whenever a slave breaks free while IRA [his antislavery group] is not aware and not present, police officers and judges help Arab-Berbers to intimidate the slave until he returns in submission".

Biram, along with 16 other activists, since 11 November 2014, is awaiting trial in Mauritania on multiple charges which include "violating public order" and "offending the authorities".

The story of Biram Dah Abeid, a prominent anti-slavery activist on trial, illustrates the troubled history and continued prevalence of slavery in Mauritania. Yet, Mauritanian human rights campaigners remain hopeful and believe that the trial will ultimately lead to positive long-term changes.

Niger

Main article: Slavery in Niger

Niger continues to have significant problems with three forms of contemporary slavery: hereditary slavery, what Anti-Slavery International terms "passive slavery", and servile marriages called wahaya. Because of the continued problem of slavery and pressure from the Timidria organization, Niger became the first country in Western Africa to pass a law specifically criminalizing slavery. Despite the law, slavery persists throughout the different ethnic groups of the country, women are particularly vulnerable, and a 2002 census confirmed the existence of 43,000 slaves and estimated that the total population could be over 870,000 people. In a landmark case in 2008, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice found the government of Niger responsible for continuing a woman's slave status as part of a wahaya marriage and awarded her US$21,500.

Sudan

Main article: Slavery in Sudan

Sudan has seen a resurgence of slavery since 1983, associated with the Second Sudanese Civil War. Estimates of abductions range from 14,000 to 200,000 people.

In Sudan, animist and Christian captives in the civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission. According to CBS News, slaves have been sold for $50 per person. In 2001, CNN reported that the Bush administration was under pressure from Congress, including conservative Christians concerned about religious oppression and slavery, to address issues involved in the Sudanese conflict. CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The [Sudanese] government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs."

Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the south by north is slavery by any definition. The government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources.

South Africa

Main article: Human trafficking in South Africa

Despite significant efforts made by the South African Government to combat trafficking in persons, the country has been placed on the "Tier 2 Watch List" by the U.S. Department of Trafficking in Persons for the past four years. South Africa shares borders with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique and Eswatini. It has 72 official ports of entry "and a number of unofficial ports of entry where people come in and out without being detected" along its 5 000 km-long land borderline. The problem of porous borders is compounded by the lack of adequately trained employees, resulting in few police officials controlling large portions of the country's coastline.

Astrophysical maser

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_maser 

 

Aurorae on the north pole of Jupiter generate cyclotron masers (Hubble)

An astrophysical maser is a naturally occurring source of stimulated spectral line emission, typically in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This emission may arise in molecular clouds, comets, planetary atmospheres, stellar atmospheres, or various other conditions in interstellar space.

Background

Main article: maser

Discrete transition energy

Like a laser, the emission from a maser is stimulated (or seeded) and monochromatic, having the frequency corresponding to the energy difference between two quantum-mechanical energy levels of the species in the gain medium which have been pumped into a non-thermal population distribution. However, naturally occurring masers lack the resonant cavity engineered for terrestrial laboratory masers. The emission from an astrophysical maser is due to a single pass through the gain medium and therefore generally lacks the spatial coherence and mode purity expected from a laboratory maser.

Nomenclature

Due to the differences between engineered and naturally occurring masers, it is often stated that astrophysical masers are not "true" masers because they lack oscillation cavities. However, the distinction between oscillator-based lasers and single-pass lasers was intentionally disregarded by the laser community in the early years of the technology.

This fundamental incongruency in language has resulted in the use of other paradoxical definitions in the field. For example, if the gain medium of a (misaligned) laser is emission-seeded but non-oscillating radiation, it is said to emit amplified spontaneous emission or ASE. This ASE is regarded as unwanted or parasitic (some researchers would add to this definition the presence of insufficient feedback or unmet lasing threshold): that is, the users wish the system to behave as a laser. The emission from astrophysical masers is, in fact, ASE but is sometimes termed superradiant emission to differentiate it from the laboratory phenomenon. This simply adds to the confusion, since both sources are superradiant. In some laboratory lasers, such as a single pass through a regeneratively amplified Ti:Sapph stage, the physics is directly analogous to an amplified ray in an astrophysical maser.

Furthermore, the practical limits of the use of the m to stand for microwave in maser are variously employed. For example, when lasers were initially developed in the visible portion of the spectrum, they were called optical masers. Charles Townes advocated that the m stand for molecule, since energy states of molecules generally provide the masing transition. Along these lines, some use the term laser to describe any system that exploits an electronic transition and the term maser to describe a system that exploits a rotational or vibrational transition, regardless of the output frequency. Some astrophysicists use the term iraser to describe a maser emitting at a wavelength of a few micrometres, even though the optics community terms similar sources lasers. The term taser has been used to describe laboratory masers in the terahertz regime, although astronomers might call these sub-millimeter masers and laboratory physicists generally call these gas lasers or specifically alcohol lasers in reference to the gain species. The electrical engineering community typically limits the use of the word microwave to frequencies between roughly 1 GHz and 300 GHz; that is, wavelengths between 30 cm and 1 mm, respectively.

Astrophysical conditions

The simple existence of a pumped population inversion is not sufficient for the observation of a maser. For example, there must be velocity coherence (light) along the line of sight so that Doppler shifting does not prevent inverted states in different parts of the gain medium from radiatively coupling. While polarisation in laboratory lasers and masers may be achieved by selectively oscillating the desired modes, polarisation in natural masers will arise only in the presence of a polarisation-state–dependent pump or of a magnetic field in the gain medium. Finally, the radiation from astrophysical masers can be quite weak and may escape detection due to the limited sensitivity (and relative remoteness) of astronomical observatories and due to the sometimes overwhelming spectral absorption from unpumped molecules of the maser species in the surrounding space. This latter obstacle may be partially surmounted through the judicious use of the spatial filtering inherent in interferometric techniques, especially very long baseline interferometry (VLBI).

The study of masers provides valuable information on the conditions—temperature, density, magnetic field, and velocity—in environments of stellar birth and death and the centres of galaxies containing black holes, leading to refinements in existing theoretical models.

Discovery

Historical background

In 1965 an unexpected discovery was made by Weaver et al.: emission lines in space, of unknown origin, at a frequency of 1665 MHz. At this time many researchers still thought that molecules could not exist in space, even though they had been discovered by McKellar in the 1940s, and so the emission was at first attributed to an unknown form of interstellar matter named Mysterium; but the emission was soon identified as line emission from hydroxide molecules in compact sources within molecular clouds. More discoveries followed, with water emission in 1969, methanol emission in 1970, and silicon monoxide emission in 1974, all emanating from within molecular clouds. These were termed masers, as from their narrow line widths and high effective temperatures it became clear that these sources were amplifying microwave radiation.

Masers were then discovered around highly evolved late-type stars (named OH/IR stars). First was hydroxide emission in 1968, then water emission in 1969 and silicon monoxide emission in 1974. Masers were also discovered in external galaxies in 1973, and in the Solar System in comet halos.

Another unexpected discovery was made in 1982 with the discovery of emission from an extra-galactic source with an unrivalled luminosity about 10⁶ times larger than any previous source. This was termed a megamaser because of its great luminosity; many more megamasers have since been discovered.

A weak disk maser was discovered in 1995 emanating from the star MWC 349A, using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory.

Evidence for an anti-pumped (dasar) sub-thermal population in the 4830 MHz transition of formaldehyde (H₂CO) was observed in 1969 by Palmer et al.

Detection

The connections of maser activity with far infrared (FIR) emission has been used to conduct searches of the sky with optical telescopes (because optical telescopes are easier to use for searches of this kind), and likely objects are then checked in the radio spectrum. Particularly targeted are molecular clouds, OH-IR stars, and FIR active galaxies.

Known interstellar species

The following species have been observed in stimulated emission from astronomical environments:

• OH
• CH
• H₂CO
• H₂O
• NH₃, ¹⁵NH₃
• CH₃OH
• HNCNH
• SiS
• HC₃N
• SiO, ²⁹SiO, ³⁰SiO
• HCN, H¹³CN
• H (in MWC 349)
• CS

Characteristics of maser radiation

The amplification or gain of radiation passing through a maser cloud is exponential. This has consequences for the radiation it produces:

Beaming

Small path differences across the irregularly shaped maser cloud become greatly distorted by exponential gain. Part of the cloud that has a slightly longer path length than the rest will appear much brighter (as it is the exponent of the path length that is relevant), and so maser spots are typically much smaller than their parent clouds. The majority of the radiation will emerge along this line of greatest path length in a "beam"; this is termed beaming.

Rapid variability

As the gain of a maser depends exponentially on the population inversion and the velocity-coherent path length, any variation of either will itself result in exponential change of the maser output.

Line narrowing

Exponential gain also amplifies the centre of the line shape (Gaussian or Lorentzian, etc.) more than the edges or wings. This results in an emission line shape that is much taller but not much wider. This makes the line appear narrower relative to the unamplified line.

Saturation

The exponential growth in intensity of radiation passing through a maser cloud continues as long as pumping processes can maintain the population inversion against the growing losses by stimulated emission. While this is so the maser is said to be unsaturated. However, after a point, the population inversion cannot be maintained any longer and the maser becomes saturated. In a saturated maser, amplification of radiation depends linearly on the size of population inversion and the path length. Saturation of one transition in a maser can affect the degree of inversion in other transitions in the same maser, an effect known as competitive gain.

High brightness

The brightness temperature of a maser is the temperature a black body would have if producing the same emission brightness at the wavelength of the maser. That is, if an object had a temperature of about 10⁹K it would produce as much 1665-MHz radiation as a strong interstellar OH maser. Of course, at 10⁹K the OH molecule would dissociate (kT is greater than the bond energy), so the brightness temperature is not indicative of the kinetic temperature of the maser gas but is nevertheless useful in describing maser emission. Masers have incredible effective temperatures, many around 10⁹K, but some of up to 10¹²K and even 10¹⁴K.

Polarisation

An important aspect of maser study is polarisation of the emission. Astronomical masers are often very highly polarised, sometimes 100% (in the case of some OH masers) in a circular fashion, and to a lesser degree in a linear fashion. This polarisation is due to some combination of the Zeeman effect, magnetic beaming of the maser radiation, and anisotropic pumping which favours certain magnetic-state transitions.

Many of the characteristics of megamaser emission are different.

Maser environments

Comets

Comets are small bodies (5 to 15 km diameter) of frozen volatiles (e.g., water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane) embedded in a crusty silicate filler that orbit the Sun in eccentric orbits. As they approach the Sun, the volatiles vaporise to form a halo and later a tail around the nucleus. Once vaporised, these molecules can form inversions and mase.

The impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994 resulted in maser emissions in the 22 GHz region from the water molecule. Despite the apparent rarity of these events, observation of the intense maser emission has been suggested as a detection scheme for extrasolar planets.

Ultraviolet light from the Sun breaks down some water molecules to form hydroxides that can mase. In 1997, 1667-MHz maser emission characteristic of hydroxide was observed from comet Hale-Bopp.

Planetary atmospheres

It is predicted that masers exist in the atmospheres of gas giant planets. Such masers would be highly variable due to planetary rotation (10-hour period for Jovian planets). Cyclotron masers have been detected at the north pole of Jupiter.

Planetary systems

In 2009, S. V. Pogrebenko et al. reported the detection of water masers in the plumes of water associated with the Saturnian moons Hyperion, Titan, Enceladus, and Atlas.

Stellar atmospheres

Pulsations of the Mira variable S Orionis, showing dust production and masers (ESO)

The conditions in the atmospheres of late-type stars support the pumping of different maser species at different distances from the star. Due to instabilities within the nuclear burning sections of the star, the star experiences periods of increased energy release. These pulses produce a shockwave that forces the atmosphere outward. Hydroxyl masers occur at a distance of about 1,000 to 10,000 astronomical units (AU), water masers at a distance of about 100 to 400 AU, and silicon monoxide masers at a distance of about 5 to 10 AU. Both radiative and collisional pumping resulting from the shockwave have been suggested as the pumping mechanism for the silicon monoxide masers. These masers diminish for larger radii as the gaseous silicon monoxide condenses into dust, depleting the available maser molecules. For the water masers, the inner and outer radii limits roughly correspond to the density limits for maser operation. At the inner boundary, the collisions between molecules are enough to remove a population inversion. At the outer boundary, the density and optical depth is low enough that the gain of the maser is diminished. Additionally, the hydroxyl masers are supported chemical pumping. At the distances where these masers are found water molecules are disassociated by UV radiation.

Star-forming regions

Main article: Star formation

Young stellar objects and (ultra)compact H II regions embedded in molecular clouds and giant molecular clouds, support the bulk of astrophysical masers. Various pumping schemes – both radiative and collisional and combinations thereof – result in the maser emission of multiple transitions of many species. For example, the OH molecule has been observed to mase at 1612, 1665, 1667, 1720, 4660, 4750, 4765, 6031, 6035, and 13441 MHz. Water and methanol masers are also typical of these environments. Relatively rare masers such as ammonia and formaldehyde may also be found in star-forming regions.

Supernova remnants

WISE image of IC 443, a supernova remnant with maser emission

The 1720 MHz maser transition of hydroxide is known to be associated with supernova remnants that interact with molecular clouds.

Extragalactic sources

While some of the masers in star forming regions can achieve luminosities sufficient for detection from external galaxies (such as the nearby Magellanic Clouds), masers observed from distant galaxies generally arise in wholly different conditions. Some galaxies possess central black holes into which a disk of molecular material (about 0.5 parsec in size) is falling. Excitations of these molecules in the disk or in a jet can result in megamasers with large luminosities. Hydroxyl, water, and formaldehyde masers are known to exist in these conditions.

Ongoing research

Astronomical masers remain an active field of research in radio astronomy and laboratory astrophysics due, in part, to the fact that they are valuable diagnostic tools for astrophysical environments which may otherwise elude rigorous quantitative study and because they may facilitate the study of conditions which are inaccessible in terrestrial laboratories.

Variability

Maser variability is generally understood to mean the change in apparent brightness to the observer. Intensity variations can occur on timescales from days to years indicating limits on maser size and excitation scheme. However, masers change in various ways over various timescales.

Distance determinations

Masers in star-forming regions are known to move across the sky along with the material that is flowing out from the forming star(s). Also, since the emission is a narrow spectral line, line-of-sight velocity can be determined from the Doppler shift variation of the observed frequency of the maser, permitting a three-dimensional mapping of the dynamics of the maser environment. Perhaps the most spectacular success of this technique is the dynamical determination of the distance to the galaxy NGC 4258 from the analysis of the motion of the masers in the black-hole disk. Also, water masers have been used to estimate the distance and proper motion of galaxies in the Local Group, including that of the Triangulum Galaxy.

VLBI observations of maser sources in late type stars and star forming regions provide determinations of their trigonometric parallax and therefore their distance. This method is much more accurate than other distance determinations, and gives us information about the galactic distance scale (e.g. the distance of spiral arms).

Open issues

Unlike terrestrial lasers and masers for which the excitation mechanism is known and engineered, the reverse is true for astrophysical masers. In general, astrophysical masers are discovered empirically then studied further in order to develop plausible suggestions about possible pumping schemes. Quantification of the transverse size, spatial and temporal variations, and polarisation state (typically requiring VLBI telemetry) are all useful in the development of a pump theory. Galactic formaldehyde masing is one such example that remains problematic.

On the other hand, some masers have been predicted to occur theoretically but have yet to be observed in nature. For example, the magnetic dipole transitions of the OH molecule near 53 MHz are expected to occur but have yet to be observed.

Interstellar medium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium 

 

The distribution of ionized hydrogen (known by astronomers as H II from old spectroscopic terminology) in the parts of the Galactic interstellar medium visible from the Earth's northern hemisphere as observed with the Wisconsin Hα Mapper (Haffner et al. 2003).

In astronomy, the interstellar medium (ISM) is the matter and radiation that exist in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic space. The energy that occupies the same volume, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, is the interstellar radiation field.

The interstellar medium is composed of multiple phases distinguished by whether matter is ionic, atomic, or molecular, and the temperature and density of the matter. The interstellar medium is composed, primarily, of hydrogen, followed by helium with trace amounts of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. The thermal pressures of these phases are in rough equilibrium with one another. Magnetic fields and turbulent motions also provide pressure in the ISM, and are typically more important, dynamically, than the thermal pressure is. In the interstellar medium, matter is primarily in molecular form, and reaches number densities of 10⁶ molecules per cm³ (1 million molecules per cm³). In hot, diffuse regions of the ISM, matter is primarily ionized, and the density may be as low as 10⁻⁴ ions per cm³. Compare this with a number density of roughly 10¹⁹ molecules per cm³ for air at sea level, and 10¹⁰ molecules per cm³ (10 billion molecules per cm³) for a laboratory high-vacuum chamber. By mass, 99% of the ISM is gas in any form, and 1% is dust. Of the gas in the ISM, by number 91% of atoms are hydrogen and 8.9% are helium, with 0.1% being atoms of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium, known as "metals" in astronomical parlance. By mass this amounts to 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, and 1.5% heavier elements. The hydrogen and helium are primarily a result of primordial nucleosynthesis, while the heavier elements in the ISM are mostly a result of enrichment (due to stellar gravity and radiation pressure) in the process of stellar evolution.

The ISM plays a crucial role in astrophysics precisely because of its intermediate role between stellar and galactic scales. Stars form within the densest regions of the ISM, which ultimately contributes to molecular clouds and replenishes the ISM with matter and energy through planetary nebulae, stellar winds, and supernovae. This interplay between stars and the ISM helps determine the rate at which a galaxy depletes its gaseous content, and therefore its lifespan of active star formation.

Voyager 1 reached the ISM on August 25, 2012, making it the first artificial object from Earth to do so. Interstellar plasma and dust will be studied until the estimated mission end date of 2025. Its twin Voyager 2 entered the ISM on November 5, 2018.

Voyager 1 is the first artificial object to reach the interstellar medium.

Interstellar matter

Table 1 shows a breakdown of the properties of the components of the ISM of the Milky Way.

Table 1: Components of the interstellar medium

Component	Fractional volume	Scale height (pc)	Temperature (K)	Density (particles/cm3)	State of hydrogen	Primary observational techniques
Molecular clouds	< 1%	80	10–20	102–106	molecular	Radio and infrared molecular emission and absorption lines
Cold neutral medium (CNM)	1–5%	100–300	50–100	20–50	neutral atomic	H I 21 cm line absorption
Warm neutral medium (WNM)	10–20%	300–400	6000–10000	0.2–0.5	neutral atomic	H I 21 cm line emission
Warm ionized medium (WIM)	20–50%	1000	8000	0.2–0.5	ionized	Hα emission and pulsar dispersion
H II regions	< 1%	70	8000	102–104	ionized	Hα emission and pulsar dispersion
Coronal gas Hot ionized medium (HIM)	30–70%	1000–3000	106–107	10−4–10−2	ionized (metals also highly ionized)	X-ray emission; absorption lines of highly ionized metals, primarily in the ultraviolet

The three-phase model

Field, Goldsmith & Habing (1969) put forward the static two phase equilibrium model to explain the observed properties of the ISM. Their modeled ISM included of a cold dense phase (T < 300 K), consisting of clouds of neutral and molecular hydrogen, and a warm intercloud phase (T ~ 10⁴ K), consisting of rarefied neutral and ionized gas. McKee & Ostriker (1977) added a dynamic third phase that represented the very hot (T ~ 10⁶ K) gas that had been shock heated by supernovae and constituted most of the volume of the ISM. These phases are the temperatures where heating and cooling can reach a stable equilibrium. Their paper formed the basis for further study over the subsequent three decades. However, the relative proportions of the phases and their subdivisions are still not well understood.

The atomic hydrogen model

This model takes into account only atomic hydrogen: A temperature higher than 3000 K breaks molecules, while that lower than 50000 K leaves atoms in their ground state. It is assumed that the influence of other atoms (He ...) is negligible. The pressure is assumed to be very low, so the durations of the free paths of atoms are longer than the ~ 1 nanosecond duration of the light pulses that constitute ordinary, temporally incoherent light.

In this collisionless gas, Einstein's theory of coherent light-matter interactions applies: all the gas-light interactions are spatially coherent. Suppose that a monochromatic light is pulsed, then scattered by molecules with a quadrupole (Raman) resonance frequency. If the “length of light pulses is shorter than all involved time constants” (Lamb (1971)), an “impulsive stimulated Raman scattering (ISRS)” (Yan, Gamble & Nelson (1985)) applies: the light generated by incoherent Raman scattering at a shifted frequency has a phase independent of the phase of the exciting light, thus generating a new spectral line, and coherence between the incident and scattered light facilitates their interference into a single frequency, thus shifting the incident frequency. Assume that a star radiates a continuous light spectrum up to X-rays. Lyman frequencies are absorbed in this light and pump atoms mainly to the first excited state. In this state, the hyperfine periods are longer than 1 ns, so an ISRS “may” redshift the light frequency, populating high hyperfine levels. Another ISRS “may” transfer energy from hyperfine levels to thermal electromagnetic waves, so the redshift is permanent. The temperature of a light beam is defined by its frequency and spectral radiance with Planck's formula. As entropy must increase, “may” becomes “does”. However, where a previously absorbed line (first Lyman beta, ...) reaches the Lyman alpha frequency, the redshifting process stops, and all hydrogen lines are strongly absorbed. But this stop is not perfect if there is energy at the frequency shifted to Lyman beta frequency, which produces a slow redshift. Successive redshifts separated by Lyman absorptions generate many absorption lines, frequencies of which, deduced from absorption process, obey a law more dependable than Karlsson's formula.

The previous process excites more and more atoms because a de-excitation obeys Einstein's law of coherent interactions: Variation dI of radiance I of a light beam along a path dx is dI=BIdx, where B is Einstein amplification coefficient which depends on medium. I is the modulus of Poynting vector of field, absorption occurs for an opposed vector, which corresponds to a change of sign of B. Factor I in this formula shows that intense rays are more amplified than weak ones (competition of modes). Emission of a flare requires a sufficient radiance I provided by random zero point field. After emission of a flare, weak B increases by pumping while I remains close to zero: De-excitation by a coherent emission involves stochastic parameters of zero point field, as observed close to quasars (and in polar auroras).

Structures

Three-dimensional structure in Pillars of Creation.

 

Map showing the Sun located near the edge of the Local Interstellar Cloud and Alpha Centauri about 4 light-years away in the neighboring G-Cloud complex

The ISM is turbulent and therefore full of structure on all spatial scales. Stars are born deep inside large complexes of molecular clouds, typically a few parsecs in size. During their lives and deaths, stars interact physically with the ISM.

Stellar winds from young clusters of stars (often with giant or supergiant HII regions surrounding them) and shock waves created by supernovae inject enormous amounts of energy into their surroundings, which leads to hypersonic turbulence. The resultant structures – of varying sizes – can be observed, such as stellar wind bubbles and superbubbles of hot gas, seen by X-ray satellite telescopes or turbulent flows observed in radio telescope maps.

The Sun is currently traveling through the Local Interstellar Cloud, a denser region in the low-density Local Bubble.

In October 2020, astronomers reported a significant unexpected increase in density in the space beyond the Solar System as detected by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes. According to the researchers, this implies that "the density gradient is a large-scale feature of the VLISM (very local interstellar medium) in the general direction of the heliospheric nose".

Interaction with interplanetary medium

The interstellar medium begins where the interplanetary medium of the Solar System ends. The solar wind slows to subsonic velocities at the termination shock, 90–100 astronomical units from the Sun. In the region beyond the termination shock, called the heliosheath, interstellar matter interacts with the solar wind. Voyager 1, the farthest human-made object from the Earth (after 1998), crossed the termination shock December 16, 2004 and later entered interstellar space when it crossed the heliopause on August 25, 2012, providing the first direct probe of conditions in the ISM (Stone et al. 2005).

Interstellar extinction

The ISM is also responsible for extinction and reddening, the decreasing light intensity and shift in the dominant observable wavelengths of light from a star. These effects are caused by scattering and absorption of photons and allow the ISM to be observed with the naked eye in a dark sky. The apparent rifts that can be seen in the band of the Milky Way – a uniform disk of stars – are caused by absorption of background starlight by molecular clouds within a few thousand light years from Earth.

Far ultraviolet light is absorbed effectively by the neutral components of the ISM. For example, a typical absorption wavelength of atomic hydrogen lies at about 121.5 nanometers, the Lyman-alpha transition. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to see light emitted at that wavelength from a star farther than a few hundred light years from Earth, because most of it is absorbed during the trip to Earth by intervening neutral hydrogen.

Heating and cooling

The ISM is usually far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Collisions establish a Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution of velocities, and the 'temperature' normally used to describe interstellar gas is the 'kinetic temperature', which describes the temperature at which the particles would have the observed Maxwell–Boltzmann velocity distribution in thermodynamic equilibrium. However, the interstellar radiation field is typically much weaker than a medium in thermodynamic equilibrium; it is most often roughly that of an A star (surface temperature of ~10,000 K) highly diluted. Therefore, bound levels within an atom or molecule in the ISM are rarely populated according to the Boltzmann formula (Spitzer 1978, § 2.4).

Depending on the temperature, density, and ionization state of a portion of the ISM, different heating and cooling mechanisms determine the temperature of the gas.

Heating mechanisms

Heating by low-energy cosmic rays

The first mechanism proposed for heating the ISM was heating by low-energy cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are an efficient heating source able to penetrate in the depths of molecular clouds. Cosmic rays transfer energy to gas through both ionization and excitation and to free electrons through Coulomb interactions. Low-energy cosmic rays (a few MeV) are more important because they are far more numerous than high-energy cosmic rays.

Photoelectric heating by grains

The ultraviolet radiation emitted by hot stars can remove electrons from dust grains. The photon is absorbed by the dust grain, and some of its energy is used to overcome the potential energy barrier and remove the electron from the grain. This potential barrier is due to the binding energy of the electron (the work function) and the charge of the grain. The remainder of the photon's energy gives the ejected electron kinetic energy which heats the gas through collisions with other particles. A typical size distribution of dust grains is n(r) ∝ r^−3.5, where r is the radius of the dust particle. Assuming this, the projected grain surface area distribution is πr²n(r) ∝ r^−1.5. This indicates that the smallest dust grains dominate this method of heating.

Photoionization

When an electron is freed from an atom (typically from absorption of a UV photon) it carries kinetic energy away of the order E_photon − E_ionization. This heating mechanism dominates in H II regions, but is negligible in the diffuse ISM due to the relative lack of neutral carbon atoms.

X-ray heating

X-rays remove electrons from atoms and ions, and those photoelectrons can provoke secondary ionizations. As the intensity is often low, this heating is only efficient in warm, less dense atomic medium (as the column density is small). For example, in molecular clouds only hard x-rays can penetrate and x-ray heating can be ignored. This is assuming the region is not near an x-ray source such as a supernova remnant.

Chemical heating

Molecular hydrogen (H₂) can be formed on the surface of dust grains when two H atoms (which can travel over the grain) meet. This process yields 4.48 eV of energy distributed over the rotational and vibrational modes, kinetic energy of the H₂ molecule, as well as heating the dust grain. This kinetic energy, as well as the energy transferred from de-excitation of the hydrogen molecule through collisions, heats the gas.

Grain-gas heating

Collisions at high densities between gas atoms and molecules with dust grains can transfer thermal energy. This is not important in HII regions because UV radiation is more important. It is also less important in diffuse ionized medium due to the low density. In the neutral diffuse medium grains are always colder, but do not effectively cool the gas due to the low densities.

Grain heating by thermal exchange is very important in supernova remnants where densities and temperatures are very high.

Gas heating via grain-gas collisions is dominant deep in giant molecular clouds (especially at high densities). Far infrared radiation penetrates deeply due to the low optical depth. Dust grains are heated via this radiation and can transfer thermal energy during collisions with the gas. A measure of efficiency in the heating is given by the accommodation coefficient:

$${\displaystyle \alpha =\frac{T_2-T}{T_d-T}}$$

where T is the gas temperature, T_d the dust temperature, and T₂ the post-collision temperature of the gas atom or molecule. This coefficient was measured by (Burke & Hollenbach 1983) as α = 0.35.

Other heating mechanisms

A variety of macroscopic heating mechanisms are present including:

• Gravitational collapse of a cloud
• Supernova explosions
• Stellar winds
• Expansion of H II regions
• Magnetohydrodynamic waves created by supernova remnants

Cooling mechanisms

Fine structure cooling

The process of fine structure cooling is dominant in most regions of the Interstellar Medium, except regions of hot gas and regions deep in molecular clouds. It occurs most efficiently with abundant atoms having fine structure levels close to the fundamental level such as: C II and O I in the neutral medium and O II, O III, N II, N III, Ne II and Ne III in H II regions. Collisions will excite these atoms to higher levels, and they will eventually de-excite through photon emission, which will carry the energy out of the region.

Cooling by permitted lines

At lower temperatures, more levels than fine structure levels can be populated via collisions. For example, collisional excitation of the n = 2 level of hydrogen will release a Ly-α photon upon de-excitation. In molecular clouds, excitation of rotational lines of CO is important. Once a molecule is excited, it eventually returns to a lower energy state, emitting a photon which can leave the region, cooling the cloud.

Radiowave propagation

Atmospheric attenuation in dB/km as a function of frequency over the EHF band. Peaks in absorption at specific frequencies are a problem, due to atmosphere constituents such as water vapor (H₂O) and carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Radio waves from ≈10 kHz (very low frequency) to ≈300 GHz (extremely high frequency) propagate differently in interstellar space than on the Earth's surface. There are many sources of interference and signal distortion that do not exist on Earth. A great deal of radio astronomy depends on compensating for the different propagation effects to uncover the desired signal.

Discoveries

The Potsdam Great Refractor, a double telescope with 80cm (31.5") and 50 cm (19.5") lenses inaugurated in 1899, used to discover interstellar calcium in 1904.

In 1864, William Huggins used spectroscopy to determine that a nebula is made of gas. Huggins had a private observatory with an 8-inch telescope, with a lens by Alvin Clark; but it was equipped for spectroscopy which enabled breakthrough observations.

In 1904, one of the discoveries made using the Potsdam Great Refractor telescope was of calcium in the interstellar medium. The astronomer Johannes Frank Hartmann determined from spectrograph observations of the binary star Mintaka in Orion, that there was the element calcium in the intervening space.

Interstellar gas was further confirmed by Slipher in 1909, and then by 1912 interstellar dust was confirmed by Slipher. In this way the overall nature of the interstellar medium was confirmed in a series of discoveries and postulizations of its nature.

In September 2020, evidence was presented of solid-state water in the interstellar medium, and particularly, of water ice mixed with silicate grains in cosmic dust grains.

History of knowledge of interstellar space

Herbig–Haro object HH 110 ejects gas through interstellar space.

The nature of the interstellar medium has received the attention of astronomers and scientists over the centuries and understanding of the ISM has developed. However, they first had to acknowledge the basic concept of "interstellar" space. The term appears to have been first used in print by Bacon (1626, § 354–455): "The Interstellar Skie.. hath .. so much Affinity with the Starre, that there is a Rotation of that, as well as of the Starre." Later, natural philosopher Robert Boyle (1674) discussed "The inter-stellar part of heaven, which several of the modern Epicureans would have to be empty."

Before modern electromagnetic theory, early physicists postulated that an invisible luminiferous aether existed as a medium to carry lightwaves. It was assumed that this aether extended into interstellar space, as Patterson (1862) wrote, "this efflux occasions a thrill, or vibratory motion, in the ether which fills the interstellar spaces."

The advent of deep photographic imaging allowed Edward Barnard to produce the first images of dark nebulae silhouetted against the background star field of the galaxy, while the first actual detection of cold diffuse matter in interstellar space was made by Johannes Hartmann in 1904 through the use of absorption line spectroscopy. In his historic study of the spectrum and orbit of Delta Orionis, Hartmann observed the light coming from this star and realized that some of this light was being absorbed before it reached the Earth. Hartmann reported that absorption from the "K" line of calcium appeared "extraordinarily weak, but almost perfectly sharp" and also reported the "quite surprising result that the calcium line at 393.4 nanometres does not share in the periodic displacements of the lines caused by the orbital motion of the spectroscopic binary star". The stationary nature of the line led Hartmann to conclude that the gas responsible for the absorption was not present in the atmosphere of Delta Orionis, but was instead located within an isolated cloud of matter residing somewhere along the line-of-sight to this star. This discovery launched the study of the Interstellar Medium.

In the series of investigations, Viktor Ambartsumian introduced the now commonly accepted notion that interstellar matter occurs in the form of clouds.

Following Hartmann's identification of interstellar calcium absorption, interstellar sodium was detected by Heger (1919) through the observation of stationary absorption from the atom's "D" lines at 589.0 and 589.6 nanometres towards Delta Orionis and Beta Scorpii.

Subsequent observations of the "H" and "K" lines of calcium by Beals (1936) revealed double and asymmetric profiles in the spectra of Epsilon and Zeta Orionis. These were the first steps in the study of the very complex interstellar sightline towards Orion. Asymmetric absorption line profiles are the result of the superposition of multiple absorption lines, each corresponding to the same atomic transition (for example the "K" line of calcium), but occurring in interstellar clouds with different radial velocities. Because each cloud has a different velocity (either towards or away from the observer/Earth) the absorption lines occurring within each cloud are either blue-shifted or red-shifted (respectively) from the lines' rest wavelength, through the Doppler Effect. These observations confirming that matter is not distributed homogeneously were the first evidence of multiple discrete clouds within the ISM.

This light-year-long knot of interstellar gas and dust resembles a caterpillar.

The growing evidence for interstellar material led Pickering (1912) to comment that "While the interstellar absorbing medium may be simply the ether, yet the character of its selective absorption, as indicated by Kapteyn, is characteristic of a gas, and free gaseous molecules are certainly there, since they are probably constantly being expelled by the Sun and stars."

The same year Victor Hess's discovery of cosmic rays, highly energetic charged particles that rain onto the Earth from space, led others to speculate whether they also pervaded interstellar space. The following year the Norwegian explorer and physicist Kristian Birkeland wrote: "It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. We have assumed that each stellar system in evolutions throws off electric corpuscles into space. It does not seem unreasonable therefore to think that the greater part of the material masses in the universe is found, not in the solar systems or nebulae, but in 'empty' space" (Birkeland 1913).

Thorndike (1930) noted that "it could scarcely have been believed that the enormous gaps between the stars are completely void. Terrestrial aurorae are not improbably excited by charged particles emitted by the Sun. If the millions of other stars are also ejecting ions, as is undoubtedly true, no absolute vacuum can exist within the galaxy."

In September 2012, NASA scientists reported that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), subjected to interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, are transformed, through hydrogenation, oxygenation and hydroxylation, to more complex organics – "a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides, the raw materials of proteins and DNA, respectively". Further, as a result of these transformations, the PAHs lose their spectroscopic signature which could be one of the reasons "for the lack of PAH detection in interstellar ice grains, particularly the outer regions of cold, dense clouds or the upper molecular layers of protoplanetary disks."

In February 2014, NASA announced a greatly upgraded database for tracking polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the universe. According to scientists, more than 20% of the carbon in the universe may be associated with PAHs, possible starting materials for the formation of life. PAHs seem to have been formed shortly after the Big Bang, are widespread throughout the universe, and are associated with new stars and exoplanets.

In April 2019, scientists, working with the Hubble Space Telescope, reported the confirmed detection of the large and complex ionized molecules of buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀) (also known as "buckyballs") in the interstellar medium spaces between the stars.