Related papers: Recent Results of Solid-State Spectroscopy
Nanometer- and micrometer-sized solid particles play an important role in the evolutionary cycle of stars and interstellar matter. The optical properties of cosmic grains determine the interaction of the radiation field with the solids,…
Information about the make-up of the galaxy arrives in the Solar system in many forms: photons of different energies, classically collected by ground- and space-based telescopes, neutral and charged atomic particles, and solid macroscopic…
Dust grains play a central role in the physics and chemistry of cosmic environments. They influence the optical and thermal properties of the medium due to their interaction with stellar radiation; provide surfaces for the chemical…
We propose a new description of astronomical dust emission in the spectral region from the Far-Infrared to millimeter wavelengths. Unlike previous classical models, this description explicitly incorporates the effect of the disordered…
The abundances of gas and dust (solids and complex molecules) in the interstellar medium (ISM) as well as their composition and structures impact practically all of astrophysics. Fundamental processes from star formation to stellar winds to…
Dust grains have been detected in various astronomical objects. Interpretation of observations of dusty objects includes three components: 1) determination of the materials which can exist in the solid phase and the measurements or…
In order to interpret observations influenced by dust and to perform detailed modeling of the observable characteristics of dust-producing or dust-containing objects, knowledge of the micro-physical properties of relevant dust species are…
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).…
We are living in a dusty universe: dust is ubiquitously seen in a wide variety of astrophysical environments, ranging from circumstellar envelopes around cool red giants to supernova ejecta, from diffuse and dense interstellar clouds and…
Except in a few cases cosmic dust can be studied in situ or in terrestrial laboratories, essentially all of our information concerning the nature of cosmic dust depends upon its interaction with electromagnetic radiation. This chapter…
We review recent progress in high-resolution imaging of scattered light from disks around young stellar objects. Many new disks have been discovered or imaged in scattered light, and improved instrumentation and observing techniques have…
The unknown state of matter at ultra-high density, large proton/neutron number asymmetry, and low temperature is a major long-standing problem in modern physics. Neutron stars provide the only known setting in the Universe where matter in…
Dust grains in the interstellar medium interact with photons across the electromagnetic spectrum. They are generally photon energy converters, absorbing short wavelength radiation and emitting long wavelength radiation. Sixty years ago in…
Multi-wavelength spectroscopy can be used to constrain the dust and gas properties in debris disks. Circumstellar dust absorbs and scatters incident stellar light. The scattered light is sometimes resolved spatially at visual and…
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…
This article gives an overview of the constitution, physical conditions and observables of dust in the interstellar medium of nearby galaxies. We first review the macroscopic, spatial distribution of dust in these objects, and its…
We present a new technique for determining the *quantity and composition* of dust in astrophysical environments using <6keV X-rays. We argue that high resolution X-ray spectra as enabled by the Chandra and XMM-Newton gratings should be…
We present imaging and spectroscopic observations of 2 nearby (z<0.1) ULIRGs from a larger sample, and address the question of whether the JHK continuum colours and slope might be effective probes of the nuclear region in searches for AGN.…
A key element when modeling dust in any astrophysical environment is a self-consistent treatment of the evolution of the dust material properties (size distribution, chemical composition and structure) as they react to and adjust to the…
Analysis of thermal dust emission spectra for dust mineralogy and physical grain properties depends on laboratory-measured or calculated comparison spectra. Often, the agreement between these two kinds of spectra is not satisfactory because…