Optical properties of cosmic dust analogs: A review

TL;DR

This review discusses the optical properties of cosmic dust analogs, emphasizing laboratory measurements and models that interpret astronomical observations to understand dust composition, structure, and their role in astrophysical processes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in laboratory data and modeling techniques for cosmic dust optical properties, aiding interpretation of astronomical spectra.

Findings

Progress in laboratory measurements of dust analogs

Development of grain models based on optical constants

Enhanced interpretation of infrared spectral features

Abstract

Nanometer- and micrometer-sized solid particles play an important role in the evolutionary cycle of stars and interstellar matter. The optical properties of cosmic grains determine the interaction of the radiation field with the solids, thereby regulating the temperature structure and spectral appearance of dusty regions. Radiation pressure on dust grains and their collisions with the gas atoms and molecules can drive powerful winds. The analysis of observed spectral features, especially in the infrared wavelength range, provides important information on grain size, composition and structure as well as temperature and spatial distribution of the material. The relevant optical data for interstellar, circumstellar, and protoplanetary grains can be obtained by measurements on cosmic dust analogs in the laboratory or can be calculated from grain models based on optical constants. Both approaches have made progress in the last years, triggered by the need to interpret increasingly detailed high-quality astronomical observations. The statistical theoretical approach, spectroscopic experiments at variable temperature and absorption spectroscopy of aerosol particulates play an important role for the successful application of the data in dust astrophysics.