Related papers: Interstellar Grains: 50 Years On
Interstellar dust is a significant component of matter in the galaxies. The dust owns its origin and reprocessing in a wide range of astrophysical environments. In order to understand the origin and evolution of the distinct types of…
One hundred years ago this year attempts began to generalise general relativity with the ambition of incorporating electromagnetism alongside gravitation in a unified field theory. These developments led to gauge theories and models with…
Granular materials constitute an intermediate state of matter between fluids and solids. Here we investigate the pattern formation when a grain is displaced by another type of grain in a radial Hele-Shaw cell. We show that several…
In 1981 Icko Iben Jr published a paper entitled 'The carbon star mystery: why do the low mass ones become such, and where have all the high mass ones gone?', where he discussed the discrepancy between the theoretical expectation and its…
The deflection of interstellar dust grains in the magnetic field near the heliopause has been investigated based on the assumption that interstellar grains are homogeneous spheres. However, remote observations have shown that interstellar…
Context. The [Mg/Fe] abundance ratios are a fundamental fossil signature to trace the chemical evolution of the disc. Despite of the huge observational and theoretical effort, discrepancies between models and data are still present and…
Terrestrial exoplanets are on the verge of joining the ranks of astronomically accessible objects. Interpreting their observable characteristics, and informing decisions on instrument design and use, will hinge on the ability to model these…
The late stages of stellar evolution from asymptotic giant branch stars to planetary nebulae are now known to be an active phase of molecular synthesis. Over 80 gas-phase molecules have been detected through rotational transitions in the…
Iron, the Universe's most abundant refractory element, is highly depleted in both circumstellar and interstellar environments, meaning it exists in solid form. The nature of this solid is unknown. In this Letter, we provide evidence that…
Aims. A sample of early B-type stars in OB associations and the field within the solar neighbourhood is studied comprehensively. Present-day abundances for the astrophysically most interesting chemical elements are derived. Methods.…
The discipline of `theoretical biology' has been developing from its inception several decades ago almost in parallel with the advances in biology, so much so that the latter is often considered to be almost exclusively an empirical…
After the first nine years of INTEGRAL operational life, the discovery of new sources and source types, a large fraction of which are highly transient or highly absorbed, is certainly one of the most compelling results and legacies of…
A new type of high-energy binary system has been revealed by the INTEGRAL satellite. These sources are being unveiled by means of multi-wavelength optical, near- and mid-infrared observations. Among these sources, two distinct classes are…
Following on from ideas presented in a recent paper by Schneider et al. (2010) on "The Far Future of Exoplanet Direct Characterization", I argue that they have exaggerated the technical obstacles to performing such 'direct characterization'…
It is now a well established fact that galaxies undergo significant morphological transformation during their lifetimes, manifesting as an evolution along the Hubble sequence from the late to the early Hubble types. The physical processes…
The ISO and Spitzer space observatories yielded a treasure trove of data on dust and ices covering dust grains. Now Herschel, and soon SOFIA and ALMA, will provide unprecedented views of the molecular world of the interstellar medium (ISM).…
Modern data empower observers to describe galaxies as the spatially and biographically complex objects they are. We illustrate this through case studies of four, $z\sim1.3$ systems based on deep, spatially resolved, 17-band + G102 + G141…
This article reviews observations and models of the diffuse ionized gas that permeates the disk and halo of our Galaxy and others. It was inspired by a series of invited talks presented during an afternoon scientific session of the 65th…
The Standard Model of cosmology of the 1980's was based on a remarkable interplay of ideas from particle theory, experiment and astrophysical observations. That model is now dead, and has been replaced by something far more bizarre.…
Cepheid stars are crucial objects for a variety of topics that range from stellar pulsation and the evolution of intermediate-mass stars to the understanding the structure of the Galaxy and the Universe through the distance measurements…