Mystery of Red Space Glow Solved

by Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
SPACE.com
April 6, 2007


Scientists have solved a decades-long mystery of a red glow that permeates our Milky Way Galaxy and other galaxies.

The red glow is most prominent in a strange, dying star called the Red Rectangle, named for the bizarre structure that surrounds it.

The red light, astronomers now say, radiates from invisibly small clusters of dust that are now believed to glow because of newly described molecular forces that oppose each other on very small scales.

The glow, called the Extended Red Emission (conveniently ERE for short) has been known but inexplicable for more than 30 years.