Interstellar O2. II - VUV oscillator strengths of Schumann-Runge lines and prospects for Space Telescope observations

Interstellar molecular oxygen should be detectable in interstellar clouds through observation of its absorption lines in the spectra of background stars. This paper describes and presents the results of measurements of oscillator strengths for some lines in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrum of O2. Lines of the (13, 0) through (16, 0) bands of the B 3Sigma(-)u - X 3Sigma(-)g, Schumann-Runge system between 1760 A and 1790 A will be the most suitable for searches for absorption by interstellar O2 with the High Resolution Spectrograph on Space Telescope. The strongest lines in these bands have oscillator strengths of about 3 x 10 to the -5th.