Smoking Quasars: a New Source for Cosmic Dust

Details Smoking Quasars: a New Source for Cosmic Dust Smoking Quasars: a New Source for Cosmic Dust

2002-01-31

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202002v1

Astrophys.J.567:L107-L110,2002

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

12 pages, 2 figures, ApJ Letters, in press

Scientific paper

10.1086/340006

Although dust is widely found in astrophysics, forming dust is surprisingly difficult. The proper combination of low temperature (<2000 K) and high density is mainly found in the winds of late-type giant and supergiant stars which, as a result, are the most efficient sources of dust known. Dust ejected from these stars into the interstellar medium has multiple important effects, including obscuring background objects and enhancing star formation. We show here that quasars are also naturally copious producers of dust, if the gas clouds producing their characteristic broad lines are part of an outflowing wind. This offers an explanation for the strong link between quasars and dust, for the heavy nuclear obscuration around many quasars and introduces a new means of forming dust at early cosmological times.

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