A Search for Interstellar Ice Absorption in the Infrared Spectrum of MU Cephei.

Abstract

The infrared spectra of Cephei and a Orionis obtained in the second ffight of Stratoscope II are compared in an attempt to detect an absorption band at 3.1 due to interstellar ice particles. The absence of the band suggests that no more than one-quarter of the interstellar reddening is due to ice. The water-vapor bands in the spectra of these two supergiants are surprisingly strong, and no satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon is known.