The Composition of Interstellar Dust

Details The Composition of Interstellar Dust The Composition of Interstellar Dust

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007sptz.prop40285w&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #40285

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We propose to determine the life cycle of two important refractory stardust species, one oxygen-rich and one carbon-rich, in order to probe the fate of stardust from the time of injection into the ISM up to the point that it takes part in the star formation process. Crystalline silicates and SiC are produced in the outflows of evolved red giants. Recently for the first time evidence was found for SiC in the interstellar medium (ISM), suggesting that this material can survive the harsch ISM conditions. In contrast, crystalline silicates, produced by oxygen-rich giants, have so far not been found in the ISM. In our solar system, crystalline silicates are abundant while SiC is not. Therefore, crystalline silicates must be re-formed in the star formation process, while SiC is destroyed in the same process. Establishing abundances of both materials in the diffuse ISM and molecular clouds will determine the way in which these materials are processed. High quality observations, supplementing archival Spitzer data, are needed to obtain abundances of these dust species. We propose to observe a sample of highly reddened stars that probe the dust composition in their line of sight.

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