Forbidden lines

Forbidden lines, in astronomical spectroscopy, bright emission lines in the spectra of certain nebulae (H II regions), not observed in the laboratory spectra of the same gases, because on Earth the gases cannot be rarefied sufficiently. The term forbidden is misleading; a more accurate description would be “highly improbable.” The emissions result from electrons in long-lived orbits within the radiating atoms—i.e., the transition from an upper energy level to a lower energy level that produces the emissions requires a long time to take place. As a result, emission lines corresponding to such atomic transitions are extremely weak compared with other lines. In the laboratory, moreover, an excited atom tends to strike another particle or the walls of the gas container before it emits a photon, thereby further reducing the possibility of observation. In an H II region in interstellar space, by contrast, the atom will remain undisturbed long enough to emit the photon. Another factor favouring forbidden radiation in an H II region is the transparency of the constituent ionized gases to visible light, which permits the photons given off through the entire depth of the nebula to contribute to the emission lines. See also nebulium.