Iron or iron oxide grains in the interstellar medium?

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Condensation Nuclei, Interstellar Chemistry, Interstellar Matter, Iron Oxides, Stellar Envelopes, Interstellar Gas, Solar System, Solid Phases

Scientific paper

Iron grains have often been proposed as a component of circumstellar and interstellar grains. It is apparent that 'cosmic abundance' circumstellar shells should condense iron-rich particles such as metallic iron, iron/nickel alloys and iron carbides. It is not, however, clear that these grains can survive in this state in the interstellar medium. In this paper the chemistry of iron particles in the diffuse interstellar medium is examined and it is concluded that these grains cannot survive as pristine metallic iron-rich entities. The reactivity of iron, and in particular its reaction with interstellar gas-phase oxygen and sulphur species, will result in the rapid degradation of the metal to an oxide, sulphide or even sulphate. The lack of metallic phases in the mineralogy of primitive interplanetary dust particles is consistent with the absence of metallic particles in the interstellar medium.

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