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Past and recent observations have revealed unexpected variations in the FIR-mm dust emissivity. In the Herschel spectral range, those are often referred to as a 500{\mu}m emission excess. Several dust emission models have been developed to…

We present a suite of 34 high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations consisting of thousands of halos up to M_halo~10^12 M_sun (M_star~10^10.5 M_sun) at z>=5 from the Feedback in Realistic Environments project. We post-process our…

Extinction by intergalactic gray dust introduces a magnitude redshift dependent offset in the standard-candle relation of SN Ia. This leads to overestimated luminosity distances compared to a dust-free universe. Quantifying the amplitude of…

We have derived the column densities of heavy elements in three gamma-ray burst (GRB) optical transients, associated with the circumburst or interstellar medium (ISM) of the host galaxy. In comparison with the same elements observed in…

As ever-more sensitive experiments are made in the quest for primordial CMB B Modes, the number of potentially significant astrophysical contaminants becomes larger as well. Thermal emission from interplanetary dust, for example, has been…

With the number of confirmed rocky exoplanets increasing steadily, their characterisation and the search for exoplanetary biospheres is becoming an increasingly urgent issue in astrobiology. We aim to investigate the possibility of…

This paper reviews our current understanding of interstellar dust models, what constitutes a viable dust model, what observational constraints are essential for deriving such model, and the current viable dust models. Interstellar dust…

An important property of exoplanetary systems is the extent of the Habitable Zone (HZ), defined as that region where water can exist in a liquid state on the surface of a planet with sufficient atmospheric pressure. Both ground and…

We report on observations of circumstellar disks around young stars that have been obtained with the MIDI instrument, which is mounted on the VLT Interferometer and operates in the 10 micrometer atmospheric window. The maximum spatial…

The James Webb Space Telescop (JWST) promises to revolutionise our understanding of the early Universe, and contrasting its upcoming observations with predictions of the $\Lambda$CDM model requires detailed theoretical forecasts. Here, we…

The search for life in the universe is currently focused on Earth-analog planets. However, we should be prepared to find a diversity of terrestrial exoplanets not only in terms of host star but also in terms of surface environment.…

The habitability of a planet is influenced by both its parent star and the properties of its local stellar neighborhood. Potential threats to habitability from the local stellar environment mainly arise from two factors: cataclysmic events…

Within the project Galactic Cold Cores we are carrying out Herschel photometric observations of cold interstellar clouds detected with the Planck satellite. The three fields observed as part of the Herschel science demonstration phase (SDP)…

We present millimetre observations of a sample of 12 high redshift ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) in the Extended Growth Strip (EGS). These objects were initially selected on the basis of their observed mid--IR colours (0.0 <…

Dust determines the temperature structure of protoplanetary disks. However, dust temperature determinations almost invariably rely on a complex modeling of the Spectral Energy Distribution. We attempt a direct determination of the…

We present a new analysis of the dust obscuration in starburst galaxies at low and high redshift. This study is motivated by our unique sample of the most extreme UV-selected starburst galaxies in the nearby universe (z<0.3), found to be…

The multi planet system HR8799 is the first target observed with MIRI's coronagraphs as part of the MIRI-EC Guaranteed Time Observations exoplanets programme in Nov. 2022. We obtained deep observations in three coronagraphic filters from 10…

We present a detailed map of the reddening in a 1.9 x 1.5 degree section of the Large Magellanic Cloud, constructed from UBVI photometry of 2069 O and B main sequence stars. We use two reddening-free photometric parameters to determine the…

The nearby transiting rocky exoplanet LTT 1445A b presents an ideal target for studying atmospheric retention in terrestrial planets orbiting M dwarfs. It is cooler than many rocky exoplanets yet tested for atmospheres, receiving a…

In recent years, interstellar dust has become a crucial topic in the study of the high and very high redshift Universe. Evidence points to the existence of high dust masses in massive star forming galaxies already during the Epoch of…