Related papers: Optical polarisation study of Galactic Open cluste…
Magnetic fields are widely observed in various astronomical contexts, yet much remains unknown about their significance across different systems and cosmic epochs. Our current knowledge of the evolution of magnetic fields is limited by…
Disk polarization at (sub)millimeter wavelengths is being revolutionized by ALMA observationally, but its origin remains uncertain. Dust scattering was recently recognized as a potential contributor to polarization, although its basic…
Interstellar dust grains are often aligned. If the grain alignment direction varies along the line of sight, the thermal emission becomes circularly-polarized. In the diffuse interstellar medium, the circular polarization at far-infrared…
Recent optical and submillimeter observations have begun to probe the existence of dust grains in the halos of spiral galaxies. I review our own work in this area which employs high-resolution optical images of edge-on spiral galaxies to…
Polarization of interstellar dust emission is a powerful probe of dust properties and magnetic field structure. Yet studies of external galaxies are hampered by foreground dust contribution. The aim of this study is to separate the…
It has not been shown so far whether the diffuse Galactic polarized emission at frequencies relevant for cosmic microwave background (CMB) studies originates from nearby or more distant regions of our Galaxy. This questions previous…
The spatial distribution of compact dark matter in our Galaxy can be determined in a few years of monitoring Galactic globular clusters for microlensing. Globular clusters are the only dense fields of stars distributed throughout the…
Accurate galaxy scaling relations are essential for a successful model of galaxy formation and evolution as they provide direct information about the physical mechanisms of galaxy assembly over cosmic time. We present here a detailed…
Interstellar dust is still a dominant uncertainty in Astronomy, limiting precision in e.g., cosmological distance estimates and models of how light is re-processed within a galaxy. When a foreground galaxy serendipitously overlaps a more…
We investigate the linear polarization produced by interstellar dust aligned by the magnetic field in the solar neighborhood (d< 50 pc). We also look for intrinsic effects from circumstellar processes, specifically in terms of polarization…
Dust and stars in the plane of the Milky Way create a "Zone of Avoidance" in the extragalactic sky. Galaxies are distributed in gigantic labyrinth formations, filaments and great walls with occasional dense clusters. They can be traced all…
We present a model for the diffuse interstellar dust that explains the observed wavelength-dependence of extinction, emission, linear and circular polarisation of light. The model is set-up with a small number of parameters. It consists of…
Interstellar dust is still the dominant uncertainty in Astronomy, limiting precision in e.g., cosmological distance estimates and models of how light is re-processed within a galaxy. When a foreground galaxy serendipitously overlaps a more…
Results from IRAS and recent optical CCD surveys are examined to discuss the distribution and origin of dust and ionized gas in elliptical galaxies. In strong contrast with the situation among spiral galaxies, masses of dust in elliptical…
The presence of dust in the intracluster medium (ICM) has been a long-standing problem that is still awaiting elucidation. Direct observational diagnostics are rather challenging (though not impossible) either because of a sparse…
The presence of dust in elliptical galaxies has recently been shown to be quite common. Deep optical multi-colour CCD imaging has revealed the presence of dust lanes and patches, and the technique of co-adding IRAS survey scans has led to…
Dust permeates the interstellar medium, reddening and polarizing background starlight, but dust properties vary with local environment. In order to characterize dust in a highly irradiated diffuse cloud, we measure the reddening and optical…
Scattering of re-emitted flux is considered to be at least partially responsible for the observed polarisation in the (sub-)millimetre wavelength range of several protoplanetary disks. Although the degree of polarisation produced by…
We present multiwavelength linear polarimetric observations of 104 stars towards the region of young open cluster NGC 6823. The polarization towards NGC 6823 is dominated by foreground dust grains and we found the evidence for the presence…
Using starlight polarization, we present the properties of foreground dust towards cluster NGC 7380 embedded in H{\sc ii} region Sh 2-142. Observations of starlight polarization are carried out in four filters using an imaging polarimeter…