Related papers: Decoding the message from meteoritic stardust sili…

We characterize the crystalline silicate content and spatial distribution of small dust grains in a large sample of protoplanetary disks in the Taurus-Auriga young cluster, using Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared spectra. In turn we use…

Composition of Comet dust obtained by the dust impact analyser on the Halley probes indicated that the comet dust is a mixure of silicate and carbonaceous material. The collected interplanetary dust particles (IDP's) are fluffy and…

Studying the composition of dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) is crucial in understanding the cycle of dust in our galaxy. The mid-infrared spectral signature of amorphous silicates, the most abundant dust species in the ISM, is studied…

Sulphur depletion in the interstellar medium (ISM) is a long-standing issue, as only 1% of its cosmic abundance is detected in dense molecular clouds (MCs), while it does not appear to be depleted in other environments. In addition to gas…

Highly crystallized undoped hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films prepared using SiF4-H2 mixture plasma were investigated at various stages of growth employing different microstructural probes. Our self-consistent results elucidate…

New multi-epoch, mid-infrared (8-13 microns) spectrophotometric observations are presented for 30~late-type stars. The observations were collected over a four year period (1994-1997), permitting an investigation of the mid-infrared spectral…

The chemical and physical properties of interstellar dust in the densest regions of the Galaxy are still not well understood. X-rays provide a powerful probe since they can penetrate gas and dust over a wide range of column densities (up to…

We present a new approach aimed at constraining the typical size and optical properties of carbon dust grains in Circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of carbon-rich stars (C-stars) in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). To achieve this goal, we…

Mid-infrared spectra of 65 T Tauri stars (TTS) taken with the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope are modeled using dust at two temperatures to probe the radial variation in dust composition in the uppermost…

To investigate the nature of starbursts' dust, we constructed a model of the stars and dust in starburst galaxies and applied it to 30 observed starburst spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The starburst model was constructed by combining…

The heavy mass loss observed in evolved asymptotic giant branch stars is usually attributed to a two-step process: atmospheric levitation by pulsation-induced shock waves, followed by radiative acceleration of newly formed dust grains.…

S-type AGB stars are thought to be in the transitional phase between M-type and C-type AGB stars. Because of their peculiar chemical composition, one may expect a strong influence of the stellar C/O ratio on the molecular chemistry and the…

How and when the mass distribution of stars in the Galaxy is set is one of the main issues of modern astronomy. Here we present a statistical study of mass and density distributions of infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) and fragments within them.…

Determination of the composition and size distribution of dust grains in debris discs is strongly dependent on constraining the underlying spatial distribution of that dust through multi-wavelength, spatially resolved imaging spanning…

New infrared spectra of 33 Galactic carbon stars from FORCAST on SOFIA reveal strong connections between stellar pulsations and the dust and molecular chemistry in their circumstellar shells. A sharp boundary in overall dust content, which…

High spatial resolution techniques have given valuable insights into the mass loss mechanism of AGB stars, which presumably involves a combination of atmospheric levitation by pulsation-induced shock waves and radiation pressure on dust.…

We present model predictions for the Zr isotopic ratios produced by slow neutron captures in C-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars of masses 1.25 to 4 Msun and metallicities Z=0.01 to 0.03, and compare them to data from single…

Cool luminous giants, in particular asymptotic giant branch stars, are among the most important sources of cosmic dust. Their extended dynamical atmospheres are places where grains form and initiate outflows driven by radiation pressure,…

Interstellar dust grain growth in dense clouds and protoplanetary disks, even moderate, affects the observed interstellar ice profiles as soon as a significant fraction of dust grains is in the size range close to the wave vector at the…

Dust is formed out of stellar material and is constantly affected by different mechanisms occurring in the ISM. Dust grains behave differently under these mechanisms depending on their sizes, and therefore the dust grain size distribution…