The Ultraviolet Absorbance of Presumably Interstellar Bacteria and Related Matters

Abstract

It is shown that the well-known 2200 Å peak in the extinction of starlight is explained by microorganisms. A mixed culture of diatoms and bacteria, which previously we found to give excellent fits to astronomical data in the infrared, has a peak absorption slightly shortward of 2200 Å, in very close agreement with the absorptions found in directions towards most early-type stars. The peak absorption is measured to be ∼ 35000 cm2 g-1. This is in addition to a scattering component of the extinction which has an estimated value for dry microorganisms of ∼ 50000 cm2 g-1. The scattering calculated for a size distribution of non-absorbing hollow bacteria with irregularities on the scale of 300 Å produces agreement with both the visual extinction law and the observed λ-1 type extinction at the far ultraviolet. The contribution to the extinction from a pure scattering bacterial model is about 3.4 mag per kpc pathlength along the galactic plane at λ. = 2175 Å. Absorption near this wavelength effectively adds ∼2.3 mag per kpc, making up precisely the observed total extinction at the peak of 5.7 mag per kpc. The full range of the interstellar extinction observations is now elegantly explained on the basis of a bacterial model alone with no added components or free parameters to be fitted. Photolysis has little effect on the bulk refractive index of the particles and so does not change the scattering component appreciably. But photolysis due to sufficient UV in space can reduce the effectiveness of the 2200 Å absorption in comparison with the scattering, thereby decreasing the height of the absorption peak. An extreme example of this is the Large Magellanic Cloud, where UV emission from a profusion of early-type stars has reduced the absorbance of the particles to about one-quarter of its value for most of our galaxy. The 2200 Å absorption has generally been attributed to small graphite particles. We explain how this belief has come about and why in the past we have been swayed by it.

1985, Astrophys. Space Sci 111, 65-78