Related papers: The Dawn of Dust Astronomy
Main sequence stars, like the Sun, are often found to be orbited by circumstellar material that can be categorized into two groups, planets and debris. The latter is made up of asteroids and comets, as well as the dust and gas derived from…
(abridged) In the core accretion scenario for the formation of planetary rocky cores, the first step toward planet formation is the growth of dust grains into larger and larger aggregates and eventually planetesimals. Although dust grains…
Although dust emission at cosmological distances has only been detected a little more than a decade ago, remarkable progress has been achieved since then in characterizing the far-infrared emission of high-redshift systems. The mere fact…
We discuss models that astrochemists have developed to study the chemical composition of the interstellar medium. These models aim at computing the evolution of the chemical composition of a mixture of gas and dust under as- trophysical…
The generation and evolution of dust in galaxies are important tracers for star formation, and can characterize the rest-frame ultraviolet to infrared emission from the galaxies. In particular understanding dust in high-redshift galaxies…
Existing (Spitzer Space Telescope) and upcoming (Herschel Space Telescope) facilities are deepening our understanding of the role of dust in tracing the energy budget and chemical evolution of galaxies. The tools we are developing while…
We present the severe, systematic uncertainties currently facing our understanding of dust emission, which stymie our ability to truly exploit dust as a tool for studying galaxy evolution. We propose a program of study to tackle these…
As comets journey into the inner solar system, they deliver particulates and volatile gases into their comae that reveal the most primitive materials in the solar system. Cometary dust particles provide crucial information for assessing the…
Interstellar dust grains do not have a single well-defined origin. Stars are demonstrably dust producers, but also efficient destroyers of cosmic dust. Dust destruction in the ISM is believed to be the result of SN shocks hitting the…
Organic compounds are ubiquitous in space: they are found in diffuse clouds, in the envelopes of evolved stars, in dense star-forming regions, in protoplanetary disks, in comets, on the surfaces of minor planets, and in meteorites and…
Observations have revealed unexpectedly large amounts of dust in high-redshift galaxies and its origin is still much debated. Valiante et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1661) suggested the net stellar dust production of the quasar host galaxy SDSS…
The recent results obtained by the modern telescopes and spacecrafts allow us for the first time to compare directly the mass, spatial density and size distribution of the dust grains in the regions of their production, processing and…
The dust reservoir in the interstellar medium of a galaxy is constantly being replenished by dust formed in the stellar winds of evolved stars. Due to their vicinity, nearby irregular dwarf galaxies the Magellanic Clouds provide an…
This review focuses on numerical approaches to deducing the light-scattering and thermal-emission properties of primitive dust particles in planetary systems from astronomical observations. The particles are agglomerates of small grains…
Recent observations have revealed that dust is widespread and abundant in galaxies up to $z\,{\backsimeq}\,8$, significantly influencing their appearance and spectral properties. In the early Universe, dust is thought to form primarily in…
These lecture notes aim to provide an introduction to dark matter from the perspective of astrophysics/cosmology. We start with a rapid overview of cosmology, including the evolution of the Universe, its thermal history and structure…
The recent rapid progress in observations of circumstellar disks and extrasolar planets has reinforced the importance of understanding an intimate coupling between star and planet formation. Under such a circumstance, it may be invaluable…
Although dust is widely found in astrophysics, forming dust is surprisingly difficult. The proper combination of low temperature (<2000 K) and high density is mainly found in the winds of late-type giant and supergiant stars which, as a…
Tiny meteoroids entering the Earth's atmosphere and inducing meteor showers have long been thought to originate partly from cometary dust. Together with other dust particles, they form a huge cloud around the Sun, the zodiacal cloud. From…
The current picture painted by the observations of circumstellar dust at white dwarfs, and the consequent atmospheric pollution, is of a surviving planetary system. This chapter recounts in detail both the discovery and empirical…