A Unified Representation of Gas-Phase Element Depletions in the Interstellar Medium

Understand

A study of gas-phase element abundances reported in the literature for 17 different elements sampled over 243 sight lines in the local part of our Galaxy reveals that the depletions into solid form (dust grains) are extremely well characterized by trends that employ only three kinds of parameters.

• One is an index that describes the overall level of depletion applicable to the gas in any particular sight line, and the other two represent linear coefficients that describe how to derive each element's depletion from this sight-line parameter.
• The information from this study reveals the relative proportions of different elements that are incorporated into dust at different stages of grain growth.
• An extremely simple scheme is proposed for deriving the dust contents and metallicities of absorption-line systems that are seen in the spectra of distant quasars or the optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts.