Related papers: Interstellar Grains: 50 Years On
Scattering and absorption of X-rays by interstellar dust is calculated for a model consisting of carbonaceous grains and amorphous silicate grains. The calculations employ realistic dielectric functions with structure near X-ray absorption…
The polarization of starlight and thermal dust emission, resulting from non-spherical grains aligned with the interstellar magnetic field (B-field), act as a powerful tool to trace the B-field morphologies and strengths in molecular clouds…
Solar neutrinos have been the subject of experimental study for almost half a century. The initial aim was '...to see into the interior of a star and thus verify directly the hypothesis of nuclear energy generation in stars'. Since then the…
Optical long-baseline interferometry is a unique and powerful technique for astronomical research. Since 2004, optical interferometers have produced an increasing number of scientific papers covering various fields of astrophysics. As…
We investigate the evolution of grains composed of an ice shell surrounding an olivine core as they pass through a spiral shock in a protoplanetary disk. We use published three-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of massive…
Presolar grains are stardust particles that condensed in the ejecta or in the outflows of dying stars and can today be extracted from meteorites. They recorded the nucleosynthetic fingerprint of their parent stars and thus serve as valuable…
In the context of Open Science, provenance has become a decisive piece of information to provide along with astronomical data. Provenance is explicitly cited in the FAIR principles, that aims to make research data Findable, Accessible,…
We discuss the radiative transfer theory for translucent clouds illuminated by an extended background source. First we derive a rigorous solution based on the assumption that multiple scattering produce an isotropic flux. Then we derive a…
Knowledge of the mechanical properties of protoplanetary and cometary matter is of key importance to better understand the activity of comets and the early stages of planet formation. The tensile strength determines the required pressure to…
The origin of the grains with diameters less than 4 micron from the inclusions in Antarctic ice cores is discussed. It is proposed that these grains were initiated by ions stopped in the upper atmosphere. The ions form molecules, which…
The enrichment of the intergalactic medium (IGM) with heavy elements provides us with a record of past star formation and with an opportunity to study the interactions between galaxies and their environments. We summarize current data…
The timescales on which astronomical dust grows remain poorly understood, with important consequences for our understanding of processes like circumstellar disk evolution and planet formation.A number of post-asymptotic giant branch stars…
The chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge is treated here in the context of an inside-out model for the Galaxy formation. We assume that this central region evolved even faster than the Galactic halo and test the effect of changing the…
Inflation plays a central role in our current understanding of the universe. According to the standard viewpoint, the homogeneous and isotropic mode of the inflaton field drove an early phase of nearly exponential expansion of the universe,…
Whether ice in cold cosmic environments is physically separated from the silicate dust or mixed with individual silicate moieties is not known. However, different grain models give very different compositions and temperatures of grains. The…
The possible detection of C_{24}, a planar graphene, recently reported in several planetary nebulae by Garciaa-Hernandez et al. (2011, 2012) inspires us to explore whether and how much graphene could exist in the interstellar medium (ISM)…
The properties of interstellar dust grains are being scrutinized more than ever before, with the advent of large facilities. Infrared emission from dust grains is a powerful asset than can help constrain their physical and chemical…
The bulk of cosmic matter resides in a dilute reservoir that fills the space between galaxies, the intergalactic medium (IGM). The history of this reservoir is intimately tied to the cosmic histories of structure formation, star formation,…
Since its inception six decades ago, astrobiology has diversified immensely to encompass several scientific questions including the origin and evolution of Terran life, the organic chemical composition of extraterrestrial objects, and the…
I critically discuss in a pedagogical and phenomenological way a few crucial tests challenging the claims by Pietronero and collaborators that there is no evidence from available galaxy catalogues that the Universe is actually homogeneous…