Circumstellar dust as a research area focuses on the physical, chemical, and dynamical properties of solid particles in the immediate environments of stars, including protoplanetary disks, debris disks, and evolved-star envelopes. Studies address dust grain composition, size distributions, formation and destruction processes, and radiative transfer effects that govern spectral energy distributions and polarization signatures. The field integrates observations from infrared to submillimeter wavelengths with laboratory astrochemistry and dust analog experiments, as well as hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations. It is central to understanding planet formation, disk evolution, stellar mass loss, and the feedback of stellar systems on the interstellar medium.
Astrophysicists led by a team from Trinity College Dublin have—for the first time—imaged a large number of exocomet belts around nearby stars, and the tiny pebbles within them. The crystal-clear images show light being emitted ...
Astronomy
Jan 17, 2025
0
116
Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe. Now, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich ...
Astronomy
Jan 13, 2025
0
107
This illustration shows a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian's Star or Tabby's Star. The star has experienced unusual dips in brightness over a matter of days, as well as much subtler ...
Astronomy
Nov 22, 2024
0
60
Most of the diverse elements in the universe come from supernovae. We are, quite literally, made of the dust of those long-dead stars and other astrophysical processes. But the details of how it all comes about are something ...
Astronomy
Nov 2, 2024
0
54
Evidence suggests that carbon nanotubes, tiny tubes consisting of pure carbon, could be forged in the envelopes of dust and gas surrounding dying stars. The findings propose a simple, yet elegant mechanism for the formation ...
Nanophysics
Jun 17, 2022
0
424
Carbon nanostructures that formed in circumstellar envelopes around carbon-rich stars may have a shared chemical origin with soot particles produced by fuel combustion. The same reaction mechanism may underpin each process, ...
Nanophysics
May 16, 2022
0
124
