| While
spectacular astronomy images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the
Chandra
X-ray Observatory make for great publicity, the maximum scientific
return from
such endeavors result from detailed analysis and modeling of
spectroscopic
observations. Since the vast majority of information about the Universe
comes
to us in the form of photons, with these photons primarily produced by
atoms
and molecules, it would seem obvious that atomic and molecular physics
would
play an important role in astrophysics. This situation, however, is
often
overlooked. In this colloquium, I will describe a few cases, out of a
multitude
of possible examples, in which a detailed understanding of the atomic
and
molecular physics is crucial to an accurate description of the
astrophysical phenomenon
including 1) the effect of the cosmological opacity of Li on microwave
background anisotropies, 2) alkali halide chemistry in brown dwarfs,
and 3)
x-ray emission from comets and the heliosphere.
An
overview of other current projects being pursued in my group will also
be given. |
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