Dust Grain–Size Distributions and Extinction in the Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud, and Small Magellanic Cloud | Zendy

Joseph C. Weingartner | Zendy; B. T. Draine | Zendy

AI Assistant Blog Pricing

Home ZAIA Blog

Open Access

Dust Grain–Size Distributions and Extinction in the Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud, and Small Magellanic Cloud

Author(s) -

Joseph C. Weingartner,

B. T. Draine

Publication year - 2001

Publication title -

the astrophysical journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376

H-Index - 489

eISSN - 1538-4357

pISSN - 0004-637X

DOI - 10.1086/318651

Subject(s) - milky way , extinction (optical mineralogy) , physics , astrophysics , line of sight , interstellar medium , molecular cloud , small magellanic cloud , grain size , albedo (alchemy) , cosmic dust , particle size distribution , astronomy , galaxy , stars , particle size , optics , materials science , geology , paleontology , art , performance art , metallurgy , art history

We construct size distributions for carbonaceous and silicate grainpopulations in different regions of the Milky Way, LMC, and SMC. The sizedistributions include sufficient very small carbonaceous grains (includingpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules) to account for the observed infraredand microwave emission from the diffuse interstellar medium. Our distributionsreproduce the observed extinction of starlight, which varies depending upon theinterstellar environment through which the light travels. As shown by Cardelli,Clayton & Mathis in 1989, these variations can be roughly parameterized by theratio of visual extinction to reddening, R_V. We adopt a fairly simplefunctional form for the size distribution, characterized by several parameters.We tabulate these parameters for various combinations of values for R_V andb_C, the C abundance in very small grains. We also find size distributions forthe line of sight to HD 210121, and for sightlines in the LMC and SMC. Forseveral size distributions, we evaluate the albedo and scattering asymmetryparameter, and present model extinction curves extending beyond the Lymanlimit.Comment: Latex (44 pages, 24 figures), replaced with final journal versio

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.

Having issues? You can contact us here

Accelerating Research