Related papers: Carbon Star Dust from Meteorites

We present Spitzer IRS spectra of four carbon stars located in the Galactic Halo and the thick disc. The spectra display typical features of carbon stars with SiC dust emission and C$_2$H$_2$ molecular absorption. Dust radiative transfer…

Interstellar iron in the form of metallic iron nanoparticles may constitute a component of the interstellar dust. We compute the stability of iron nanoparticles to sublimation in the interstellar radiation field, finding that iron clusters…

The interstellar medium of galaxies is composed of multiple phases, including molecular, atomic, and ionized gas, as well as dust. Stars are formed within this medium from cold molecular gas clouds, which collapse due to their gravitational…

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…

The high occurrence on Earth of ordinary chondrite meteorites and the making of models based upon arbitrary assumptions has led to some confusion about the origin of ordinary chondrites. Major element fractionation among chondrites has been…

The size distribution of asteroids in the solar system suggests that they formed top-down, with 100-1000 km bodies forming from the gravitational collapse of dense clumps of small solid particles. We investigate the conditions under which…

Dust grains of crystalline silicate, which are rarely presented in interstellar space, were found in cometary nuclei. These crystalline silicates are thought to have formed by annealing of amorphous silicate grains or direct condensation of…

Chondrules are small spherical objects that formed at high temperatures early in the history of the Solar System. The key compositional characteristics of chondrules may be well explained by high gas pressures in their formation environment…

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,…

Stardust grains that originated in ancient stars and supernovae are recovered from meteorites and carry the detailed composition of their astronomical sites of origin. We present evidence that the majority of large ($\mu$m-sized) meteoritic…

Asteroids and meteorites provide key evidence on the formation of planetesimals in the Solar System. Asteroids are traditionally thought to form in a bottom-up process by coagulation within a population of initially km-scale planetesimals.…

The zodiacal light is a night-glow mostly visible along the plane of the ecliptic. It represents the background radiation associated with solar light scattered by the tenuous flattened interplanetary cloud of dust particles surrounding the…

Since their discovery in 1991, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) -- a novel one-dimensional carbon allotrope -- have attracted considerable interest worldwide because of their potential technological applications such as electric and optical devices.…

Carbonaceous asteroids represent the principal source of water in the inner Solar System and might correspond to the main contributors for the delivery of water to Earth. Hydrogen isotopes in water-bearing primitive meteorites, e.g.…

Globular clusters contain many stars with surface abundance patterns indicating contributions from hydrogen burning products, as seen in the anti-correlated elemental abundances of e.g. sodium and oxygen, and magnesium and aluminium.…

The main carrier of primordial heavy noble gases in chondrites is thought to be an organic phase, known as phase Q, whose precise characterization has resisted decades of investigation. Indirect techniques have revealed that phase Q might…

Clouds also form in atmospheres of planets that orbit other stars than our Sun, in so-called extrasolar planets or exoplanets. Exoplanet atmospheres can be chemically extremely rich. Exoplanet clouds are therefor made of a mix of materials…

There are at least three sources of cosmic quarks in the universe. One, the quark nuggets which may survive beyond a certain baryon number during the phase transition from quarks to hadrons microseconds after the big bang. These quark…

Observations of comets and asteroids show that the Solar Nebula that spawned our planetary system was rich in water and organic molecules. Bombardment brought these organics to the young Earth's surface, seeding its early chemistry. Unlike…

Two fundamentally different processes of rocky planet formation exist, but it is unclear which one built the terrestrial planets of the solar system. Either they formed by collisions among planetary embryos from the inner solar system, or…