Abstract
I HAVE recently argued1 that the alignment of interstellar grains, which is required to account for the phenomenon of interstellar polarization, may be caused by galactic soft X-rays with energies in the range ∼0.2–0.4 keV. Mack2 has claimed that only a negligible fraction of the galactic disk is exposed to the necessary X-ray flux.
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References
Wickramasinghe, N. C., Nature, 228, 540 (1970).
Mack, J. E., Nature Physical Science, 229, 50 (1971).
Bell, K. L., and Kingston, A. E., Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc, 136, 241 (1967).
Grader, R. J., Hill, R. W., and Seward, F. D., Astrophys. J., 159, 201 (1970).
Fujimoto, M., Hayakawa, S., and Kato, T., Astrophys. Space Sci., 4, 64 (1969).
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WICKRAMASINGHE, N. Role of Soft Galactic X-rays in the Alignment of Interstellar Grains. Nature Physical Science 232, 110–111 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/physci232110a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/physci232110a0
