Summary

About 15% of the visible matter in the Galaxy is in the form of gas and dust, serving as the raw material for new stars. About 99% of this interstellar matter is in the form of gas—individual atoms or molecules. The most abundant elements in the interstellar gas are hydrogen and helium. About 1% of the interstellar matter is in the form of solid interstellar dust grains.

Interstellar gas may be hot or cold. Gas found near hot stars emits light by fluorescence, that is, light is emitted when an electron is captured by an ion and cascades down to lower-energy levels. Glowing clouds (nebulae) of ionized hydrogen are called H II regions and have temperatures of about 10,000 K. Most hydrogen in interstellar space is not ionized and can best be studied by radio measurements of the 21-centimeter line. Some of the gas in interstellar space is at a temperature of a million degrees, even though it is far away in hot stars; this ultra-hot gas is probably heated when rapidly moving gas ejected in supernova explosions sweeps through space. In some places, gravity gathers interstellar gas into giant clouds, within which the gas is protected from starlight and can form molecules; more than 200 different molecules have been found in space, including the basic building blocks of proteins, which are fundamental to life as we know it here on Earth.

Interstellar dust can be detected: (1) when it blocks the light of stars behind it, (2) when it scatters the light from nearby stars, and (3) because it makes distant stars look both redder and fainter. These effects are called interstellar extinction and reddening. Dust can also be detected in the infrared because it emits heat radiation. Dust is found throughout the plane of the Milky Way. The dust particles are about the same size as the wavelength of light and consist of rocky cores that are either sootlike (carbon-rich) or sandlike (silicates) with mantles made of ices such as water, ammonia, and methane.

Cosmic rays are particles that travel through interstellar space at a typical speed of 90% of the speed of light. The most abundant elements in cosmic rays are the nuclei of hydrogen and helium, but electrons and positrons are also found. It is likely that many cosmic rays are produced in supernova shocks.

Interstellar matter is constantly flowing through the Galaxy and changing from one phase to another. At the same time, gas is constantly being added to the Galaxy by accretion from extragalactic space, while mass is removed from the interstellar medium by being locked in stars. Some of the mass in stars is, in turn, returned to the interstellar medium when those stars evolve and die. In particular, the heavy elements in interstellar space were all produced inside stars, while the dust grains are made in the outer regions of stars that have swelled to be giants. These elements and grains, in turn, can then be incorporated into new stars and planetary systems that form out of the interstellar medium.

The Sun is located at the edge of a low-density cloud called the Local Fluff. The Sun and this cloud are located within the Local Bubble, a region extending to at least 300 light-years from the Sun, within which the density of interstellar material is extremely low. Astronomers think this bubble was blown by some nearby stars that experienced a strong wind and some supernova explosions.