Diffuse interstellar absorption bands

The diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are a large number of absorption bands that are superposed on the interstellar extinction curve and are of interstellar origin. Since the discovery of the first two DIBs in the 1920s, the exact nature of DIBs still remains unclear. This article reviews the history of the detections of DIBs in the Milky Way and external galaxies, the major observational characteristics of DIBs, the correlations or anti-correlations among DIBs or between DIBs and other interstellar features (e.g. the prominent 2175 Angstrom extinction bump and the far-ultraviolet extinction rise), and the proposed candidate carriers. Whether they are also present in circumstellar environments is also discussed.