Related papers: Interstellar dust as a dynamic environment
Interstellar dust grains play a crucial role in the evolution of the galactic interstellar medium (ISM). Despite its importance, however, dust remains poorly understood in terms of its origin, composition, and abundance throughout the…
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…
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 aim to constrain the dust mass and grain sizes in the interaction regions between the stellar winds and the ISM around asymptotic giant branch stars. By describing the dust in these regions, we aim to shed light on the role of low mass…
Models of astrophysical dust are key to understand several physical processes, from the role of dust grains as cooling agents in the ISM to their evolution in dense circumstellar disks, explaining the occurrence of planetary systems around…
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…
This review surveys the observed properties of interstellar dust grains: the wavelength-dependent extinction of starlight, including absorption features, from UV to IR; optical luminescence; IR emission; microwave emission; optical, UV, and…
The interaction of dust grains originating from the local interstellar cloud with the environment inside the heliosphere is investigated. As a consequence of this interaction the spatial distribution of interstellar dust grains changes with…
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 investigate the equilibrium charge distribution of dust grains in the interstellar medium (ISM). Our treatment accounts for collisional charging by electrons and ions, photoelectric charging due to a background interstellar radiation…
The interstellar medium (ISM) has a multiphase structure characterized by gas, dust and molecules. The gas can be found in different charge states: neutral, low-ionized (warm) and high-ionized (hot). It is possible to probe the multiphase…
Despite its small mass fraction typically observed in the interstellar medium, dust plays a significant role as a key component of galaxies, affecting a wide range of properties. This review focuses specifically on how dust grains influence…
We present a novel framework to self-consistently model the effects of radiation fields, dust physics and molecular chemistry (H$_2$) in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. The model combines a state-of-the-art radiation…
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,…
The degree of porosity in interstellar dust-grain material is poorly defined, although recent work has suggested that the grains could be highly porous. Aside from influencing the optical properties of the dust, porosity has the potential…
The study of the interstellar medium (ISM) in the X-rays has entered a golden age with the advent of the X-ray observatories XMM-Newton and Chandra. High-energy resolution allowed to study dust spectroscopic features with unprecedented…
Interstellar dust appears in a number of roles in the interstellar medium. Historically, the most familiar one is as a source of extinction in the optical. Absorbed optical and ultraviolet light heats the dust, whence infrared (including…
Distance estimates derived from spectroscopy or parallax have been unified by considering extinction by large grains. The addition of such a population of what is called Dark Dust to models of the diffuse interstellar medium is tested…
Theoretical studies have revealed that dust grains are usually moving fast through the turbulent interstellar gas, which could have significant effects upon interstellar chemistry by modifying grain accretion. This effect is investigated in…
Aims. We investigate the role of photo-evaporation of dust exposed to the radiation field from hot young stars and planetary nebulae (PNe) as a possible destruction mechanism of dust grains in the interstellar medium (ISM). Methods. We…