Related papers: Small and Very Small Interstellar Grains
The distribution of interstellar dust grains (ISDG) observed in the Solar System depends on the nature of the interstellar medium-solar wind interaction. The charge of the grains couples them to the interstellar magnetic field (ISMF)…
Our current understanding of interstellar dust is summarized at an introductory level. Submicron-sized interstellar dust grains absorb and scatter light, and reradiate the absorbed energy in the infrared. The grain population spans a range…
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…
The sizes of interstellar grains are widely distributed, ranging from a few angstroms to a few micrometers. The ultraviolet (UV) and optical extinction constrains the dust in the size range of a couple hundredth micrometers to several…
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…
High-resolution ultraviolet observations of nearby bright and faint stars are required to evaluate changes in the past and future galactic environments of the Sun, and the possibly impact of these changes on the interplanetary environment…
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…
A significant fraction of main sequence stars observed interferometrically in the near infrared have slightly extended components that have been attributed to very hot dust. To match the spectrum appears to require the presence of large…
Several sets of data show that small interstellar grains captured in interstellar magnetic fields draped over the heliosphere appear to polarize the light of nearby stars. The maximum polarization direction is offset in ecliptic longitude…
We show that space-based telescopes such as the proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph will be able to detect the light scattered by the interstellar grains along lines of sight passing near stars in our Galaxy. The relative flux of…
The abundance of both amorphous and crystalline silicates in very small grains is limited by the fact that the 10 micron silicate emission feature is not detected in the diffuse ISM. On the basis of the observed IR emission spectrum for the…
Identification by the Ulysses spacecraft of interstellar grains inside the planetary system provides a new window for the study of diffuse interstellar matter. Dust particles observed by Ulysses and confirmed by Galileo are more massive…
A model of spheroidal particles is used to calculate the steady-state temperature of dust grains immersed in the interstellar radiation field. It is found that the temperature of non-spherical grains with the aspect ratios a/b <= 2 deviates…
The solar wind carves a bubble in the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM), known as the heliosphere. Charged interstellar dust grains (ISDG) encountering the heliosphere may be diverted around the heliopause or penetrate it depending on…
The properties of interstellar grains can now be defined by a rapidly growing wealth of observational data. We rely upon models to combine these data with unobserved properties such as the size distribution of grains, their structure and…
Our current understanding of the absorption and emission properties of interstellar grains are reviewed. The constraints placed by the Kramers-Kronig relation on the wavelength-dependence and the maximum allowable quantity of the dust…
Interstellar matter (ISM) sets the boundary conditions of the heliosphere and dominates the interplanetary medium. The heliosphere configuration has varied over recent history, as the Sun emerged from the Local Bubble and entered a…
Aligned interstellar grains produce polarized extinction (observed at wavelengths from the far-ultraviolet to the mid-infrared), and polarized thermal emission (observed at far-infrared and submm wavelengths). The grains must be quite…
Recent observations with dust detectors on board the interplanetary spacecraft Ulysses and Galileo have recorded a substantial flux of large interstellar grains with radii between 0.25 and 2.0 mu entering the solar system from the local…
Interstellar dust spans a wide range in size distribution, ranging from ultrasmall grains of a few Angstroms to micrometer-size grains. While the presence of nanometer-size dust grains in the Galactic interstellar medium was speculated six…