1994A&A...284..227J

Measurements of the very broadband structure in the visual part of the extinction curve are compared to IUE extinction curve parameters in the scheme of Fitzpatrick and Massa. The correlation of VBS depth with FUV rise found by Reimann & Friedemann (1991) is shown to be a correlation with linear rise and not with far UV non-linear rise. The correlation with linear rise suggests that the VBS is due to an onset of extinction at about 1.8µm^–1, rather than what has previously been suggested: due to luminescence or the presence of two extinction components longward and shortward of the VBS. The optical properties inferred for the linear rise carrier are consistent with some amorphous solid with a large optical gap. Small carbonaceous grains may be the carrier of the linear rise in extinction, because the erosion of core-mantle particles is expected to produce many of such small grains and offers a natural mechanism for the existence of the inferred two populations of big (a∼0.13 µm) and small (a∼0.005 µm) grains.