Nanodust in the Interstellar Medium in Comparison to the Solar System

TL;DR

This paper reviews nanodust in the interstellar medium, highlighting its properties, detection methods, and comparison with nanodust in the solar system, emphasizing differences in observational likelihood.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of nanodust characteristics and detection in the interstellar medium versus the solar system, emphasizing observational challenges.

Findings

Nanodust ranges from molecules to tens of nanometers in size.

Various interstellar phenomena reveal nanodust presence.

Detection of solar system nanodust via these processes is less probable.

Abstract

Nanodust, which undergoes stochastic heating by single starlight photons in the interstellar medium, ranges from angstrom-sized large molecules containing tens to thousands of atoms (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules) to grains of a couple tens of nanometers. The presence of nanograins in astrophysical environments has been revealed by a variety of interstellar phenomena: the optical luminescence, the near- and mid-infrared emission, the Galactic foreground microwave emission, and the ultraviolet extinction which are ubiquitously seen in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and beyond. Nanograins (e.g. nanodiamonds) have also been identified as presolar in primitive meteorites based on their isotopically anomalous composition. Considering the very processes that lead to the detection of nanodust in the ISM for the nanodust in the solar system shows that the observation of solar system nanodust by these processes is less likely.