Related papers: Interstellar Dust Grains
The chemical and physical properties of interstellar dust in the densest regions of the Galaxy are still not well understood. X-rays provide a powerful probe since they can penetrate gas and dust over a wide range of column densities (up to…
We consider the lifecycle of dust introduced into the hot interstellar medium in isolated elliptical galaxies. Dust grains are ejected into galactic-scale cooling flows in large ellipticals by normal mass loss from evolving red giants.…
Interstellar polarization at far-infrared through millimeter wavelengths (0.1 - 1 mm) is primarily due to thermal emission from dust grains aligned with magnetic fields. This mechanism has led to studies of magnetic fields in a variety of…
The in-situ detection of interstellar dust grains in the Solar System by the dust instruments on-board the Ulysses and Galileo spacecraft as well as the recent measurements of hyperbolic radar meteors give information on the properties of…
The temperatures of interstellar dust grains are analyzed using stochastic simulations, taking into account the grain composition and size and the discreteness of the photon flux. [...] The distribution of grain temperatures is calculated…
We present a new model of interstellar dust in which large grains are a single composite material, ``astrodust,'' and nanoparticle-sized grains come in distinct varieties including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We argue that a…
We present a method for calculating the infrared emission from a population of dust grains heated by starlight, including very small grains for which stochastic heating by starlight photons results in high temperature transients. Because…
How dust scatters and absorbs starlight in the interstellar medium (ISM) contains important clues about the size and composition of interstellar dust. While the ultraviolet (UV) and visible interstellar extinction is well studied and can be…
Scattering and absorption of light by a homogeneous distribution of intergalactic large dust grains has been proposed as an alternative, non-cosmological explanation for the faintness of Type Ia supernovae at $z\s im 0.5$. We investigate…
Measurements by dust detectors on interplanetary spacecraft appear to indicate a substantial flux of interstellar particles with masses exceeding 10^{-12}gram. The reported abundance of these massive grains cannot be typical of interstellar…
We present evolutionary calculations for the size and aromatization degree distributions of interstellar dust grains, driven by their destruction by radiation, collisions with gas particles, and shattering due to grain-grain collisions.…
We study the effects of using the optical properties of irregular hexahedral grains in photoionization models of circumstellar nebulae around evolved stars. Dust opacities for the irregular grains were obtained from the scattering…
Interstellar extinction includes both absorption and scattering of photons from interstellar gas and dust grains, and it has the effect of altering a source's spectrum and its total observed intensity. However, while multiple absorption…
The gas-to-dust mass ratios found for interstellar dust within the Solar System, versus values determined astronomically for the cloud around the Solar System, suggest that large and small interstellar grains have separate histories, and…
The low density interstellar medium (ISM) close to the Sun and inside of the heliosphere provides a unique laboratory for studying interstellar dust grains. Grain characteristics in the nearby ISM are obtained from observations of…
There is a long-standing discussion in the astrophysical/astrochemical community as to the structure and morphology of dust grains in various astrophysical environments (e.g., interstellar clouds, protostellar envelopes, protoplanetary and…
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…
A broad array of interstellar absorption features that appear in the ultraviolet spectra of bright sources allows us to measure the abundances and ionization states of many important heavy elements that exist as free atoms in the…
The far-infrared (FIR) emissivity of dust is an important parameter characterizing the physical properties of the grains. With the availability of stellar databases and far-infrared data from Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) it is possible…
There are indications that interstellar and interplanetary dust grains have an inhomogeneous and fluffy structure. We investigate different methods to describe light scattering by such composite particles. Both a model of layered particles…