Observing ultraviolet signatures of interstellar organics with the Hubble Space Telescope

Abstract

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) will be more sensitive for ultraviolet spectroscopy than either the GHRS or the STIS, especially in the far UV where many absorption lines and bands formed by atoms and molecules have electronic transitions from the ground state. Here we outline our plans for using the COS to observe interstellar gas and dust in the cold ISM, along with a report on the results of preliminary archival HST search for UV diffuse interstellar bands. © 2008 International Astronomical Union.