Department of Physics
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Astronomy Colloquium
Testing Models for Interstellar Dust
Date: Tuesday, October 14th
Time: 3:30 pm
Place: 6515 Sterling Hall
Speaker: Bruce Draine, Princeton University
Abstract: The basic properties of interstellar dust continue to be controversial. We are quite sure that much of the dust mass is composed of amorphous silicates. There is wide agreement that interstellar dust includes a substantial population of ultrasmall grains consisting of large PAH molecules. All authors agree that carbonaceous material contributes an appreciable fraction of the overall grain mass. Beyond this, there remains uncertainty over fundamental issues. For example, grain morphology -- is the overall dust mass dominated by grains that are compact, or by grains that are loose, fluffy aggregates?&lt;br&gt;<br>
I will discuss some recent work on interstellar dust, including:&lt;br&gt;<br>
(1) models vs observations of IR emission from star-forming galaxies;&lt;br&gt;<br>
(2) predicting polarization of FIR/submm emission from interstellar dust;&lt;br&gt;<br>
(3) conflict between current interstellar dust models and observations of interstellar dust entering the heliosphere.
Host: Prof Alexander Lazarian
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