Other
Scientific paper
Jul 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996hst..prop.6541s&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #6541
Other
Hst Proposal Id #6541 Interstellar Medium
Scientific paper
We propose a study to obtain high quality interstellarabundance data (i.e. S/N ~ 500-1000) for the heavy atom Cd (Z= 48), an element produced mainly by s-process neutroncapture in intermediate-to-low mass AGB stars, to explorenucleosynthetic enrichment in the ISM. The only existing ISMmeasure of Cd, in a sight line characterized by large gasdepletions onto dust, yields an abundance consistent with thesolar value. However, since Cd should be chemically similarto Zn, an element with a common outer electron shell structurebut which is depleted from solar by at least a factor 3 inthis sight line, we suspect that Cd must be somewhatdepleted onto dust. We believe the apparent solar abundanceof Cd reflects the fact that the true ISM reference ( cosmic)abundance is larger than the solar value, reflecting anincrease since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billionyears ago. This supposition is not unreasonable --observations of other heavy s-process elements in theatmospheres of some AGB stars show substantial enrichments andso we expect that some heavy s-process element enrichment ofthe ISM must have occurred. The science proposed hereprovides an opportunity to determine the degree of post-stellar evolution enrichment, yielding important informationon bulk s-process yields and cumulative injection of thismaterial into the ISM over the past 4.5 billion years. Becausethis program requires S/N values unobtainable with STIS, thisrepresents the last opportunity to do this
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