Abundance of interstellar aluminum

Abstract

New observations of Al II 1670 Å, the only line of the dominant ionization stage of interstellar aluminum detected to date, are presented. Observations of ionized silicon are used to define an empirical curve of growth from which aluminum depletions can be derived. The depletion ranges from a factor of 10 in α Vir [E(B-V) ≡ 0.04] to a factor of 1000 in ο Per. The depletion is similar to that of iron, but a factor of 2 - 10 lower than that for silicon in the same stars. The observations of near-UV lines using the Copernicus V1 tubes with removal of a high cosmic-ray-induced fluorescent background are described.