The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment
The carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are largely unidentified molecules ubiquitously present in the interstellar medium (ISM). After decades of study, two strong and possibly three weak near-infrared DIBs have recently been attributed to the C+ 60 fullerene based on observational an...
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| Language: | English |
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EDP Sciences
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47382/ |
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| author | Cox, Nick L.J. Cami, Jan Farhang, Amin Smoker, Jonathan Monreal-Ibero, Ana Lallement, Rosine Sarre, Peter J Marshall, Charlotte C.M. Smith, Keith T. Evans, Christopher J. Royer, Pierre Linnartz, Harold Cordiner, Martin A. Joblin, Christine van Loon, Jacco Th. Foing, Bernard H. Bhatt, Neil H. Bron, Emeric Elyajouri, Meriem de Koter, Alex Ehrenfreund, Pascale Javadi, Atefeh Kaper, Lex Khosroshadi, Habib G Laverick, Mike Le Petit, Franck Mulas, Giacomo Roueff, Evelyne Salama, Farid Spaans, Marco |
| author_facet | Cox, Nick L.J. Cami, Jan Farhang, Amin Smoker, Jonathan Monreal-Ibero, Ana Lallement, Rosine Sarre, Peter J Marshall, Charlotte C.M. Smith, Keith T. Evans, Christopher J. Royer, Pierre Linnartz, Harold Cordiner, Martin A. Joblin, Christine van Loon, Jacco Th. Foing, Bernard H. Bhatt, Neil H. Bron, Emeric Elyajouri, Meriem de Koter, Alex Ehrenfreund, Pascale Javadi, Atefeh Kaper, Lex Khosroshadi, Habib G Laverick, Mike Le Petit, Franck Mulas, Giacomo Roueff, Evelyne Salama, Farid Spaans, Marco |
| author_sort | Cox, Nick L.J. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are largely unidentified molecules ubiquitously present in the interstellar medium (ISM). After decades of study, two strong and possibly three weak near-infrared DIBs have recently been attributed to the C+ 60 fullerene based on observational and laboratory measurements. There is great promise for the identification of the over 400 other known DIBs, as this result could provide chemical hints towards other possible carriers.
In an effort to systematically study the properties of the DIB carriers, we have initiated a new large-scale observational survey: the ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey (EDIBLES). The main objective is to build on and extend existing DIB surveys to make a major step forward in characterising the physical and chemical conditions for a statistically significant sample of interstellar lines-of-sight, with the goal to reverse-engineer key molecular properties of the DIB carriers.
EDIBLES is a filler Large Programme using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile. It is designed to provide an observationally unbiased view of the presence and behaviour of the DIBs towards early-spectraltype stars whose lines-of-sight probe the diffuse-to-translucent ISM. Such a complete dataset will provide a deep census of the atomic and molecular content, physical conditions, chemical abundances and elemental depletion levels for each sightline. Achieving these goals requires a homogeneous set of high-quality data in terms of resolution (R ~ 70 000 – 100 000), sensitivity (S/N up to 1000 per resolution element), and spectral coverage (305–1042 nm), as well as a large sample size (100+ sightlines). In this first paper the goals, objectives and methodology of the EDIBLES programme are described and an initial assessment of the data is provided. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:05:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-47382 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:05:22Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | EDP Sciences |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-473822017-10-20T12:12:21Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47382/ The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment Cox, Nick L.J. Cami, Jan Farhang, Amin Smoker, Jonathan Monreal-Ibero, Ana Lallement, Rosine Sarre, Peter J Marshall, Charlotte C.M. Smith, Keith T. Evans, Christopher J. Royer, Pierre Linnartz, Harold Cordiner, Martin A. Joblin, Christine van Loon, Jacco Th. Foing, Bernard H. Bhatt, Neil H. Bron, Emeric Elyajouri, Meriem de Koter, Alex Ehrenfreund, Pascale Javadi, Atefeh Kaper, Lex Khosroshadi, Habib G Laverick, Mike Le Petit, Franck Mulas, Giacomo Roueff, Evelyne Salama, Farid Spaans, Marco The carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are largely unidentified molecules ubiquitously present in the interstellar medium (ISM). After decades of study, two strong and possibly three weak near-infrared DIBs have recently been attributed to the C+ 60 fullerene based on observational and laboratory measurements. There is great promise for the identification of the over 400 other known DIBs, as this result could provide chemical hints towards other possible carriers. In an effort to systematically study the properties of the DIB carriers, we have initiated a new large-scale observational survey: the ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey (EDIBLES). The main objective is to build on and extend existing DIB surveys to make a major step forward in characterising the physical and chemical conditions for a statistically significant sample of interstellar lines-of-sight, with the goal to reverse-engineer key molecular properties of the DIB carriers. EDIBLES is a filler Large Programme using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile. It is designed to provide an observationally unbiased view of the presence and behaviour of the DIBs towards early-spectraltype stars whose lines-of-sight probe the diffuse-to-translucent ISM. Such a complete dataset will provide a deep census of the atomic and molecular content, physical conditions, chemical abundances and elemental depletion levels for each sightline. Achieving these goals requires a homogeneous set of high-quality data in terms of resolution (R ~ 70 000 – 100 000), sensitivity (S/N up to 1000 per resolution element), and spectral coverage (305–1042 nm), as well as a large sample size (100+ sightlines). In this first paper the goals, objectives and methodology of the EDIBLES programme are described and an initial assessment of the data is provided. EDP Sciences 2017-10-16 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47382/1/PJS%20The%20ESO%20Diffuse%20Interstellar%20Bands%20Large.pdf Cox, Nick L.J., Cami, Jan, Farhang, Amin, Smoker, Jonathan, Monreal-Ibero, Ana, Lallement, Rosine, Sarre, Peter J, Marshall, Charlotte C.M., Smith, Keith T., Evans, Christopher J., Royer, Pierre, Linnartz, Harold, Cordiner, Martin A., Joblin, Christine, van Loon, Jacco Th., Foing, Bernard H., Bhatt, Neil H., Bron, Emeric, Elyajouri, Meriem, de Koter, Alex, Ehrenfreund, Pascale, Javadi, Atefeh, Kaper, Lex, Khosroshadi, Habib G, Laverick, Mike, Le Petit, Franck, Mulas, Giacomo, Roueff, Evelyne, Salama, Farid and Spaans, Marco (2017) The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 606 . A76. ISSN 0004-6361 ISM: lines and bands – ISM: clouds – ISM: molecules – ISM: dust – local interstellar matter – Stars: early-type https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2017/10/aa30912-17/aa30912-17.html doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201730912 doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201730912 |
| spellingShingle | ISM: lines and bands – ISM: clouds – ISM: molecules – ISM: dust – local interstellar matter – Stars: early-type Cox, Nick L.J. Cami, Jan Farhang, Amin Smoker, Jonathan Monreal-Ibero, Ana Lallement, Rosine Sarre, Peter J Marshall, Charlotte C.M. Smith, Keith T. Evans, Christopher J. Royer, Pierre Linnartz, Harold Cordiner, Martin A. Joblin, Christine van Loon, Jacco Th. Foing, Bernard H. Bhatt, Neil H. Bron, Emeric Elyajouri, Meriem de Koter, Alex Ehrenfreund, Pascale Javadi, Atefeh Kaper, Lex Khosroshadi, Habib G Laverick, Mike Le Petit, Franck Mulas, Giacomo Roueff, Evelyne Salama, Farid Spaans, Marco The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment |
| title | The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey
EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment |
| title_full | The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey
EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment |
| title_fullStr | The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey
EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment |
| title_full_unstemmed | The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey
EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment |
| title_short | The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey
EDIBLES: I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment |
| title_sort | eso diffuse interstellar bands large exploration survey
edibles: i. project description, survey sample and quality assessment |
| topic | ISM: lines and bands – ISM: clouds – ISM: molecules – ISM: dust – local interstellar matter – Stars: early-type |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47382/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47382/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47382/ |