Astrophysical dust articles from across Nature Portfolio

The interstellar medium (ISM) is critical to galaxy evolution. Here, the authors show dust processing modelling applied to magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explicitly follow dust destruction by the combined effects of grain-grain collisions and ion-sputtering induced by a supernova blast wave in a turbulent multiphase, magnetized ISM.

Spatial and kinematic analysis of the solar neighbourhood shows that the Radcliffe Wave, a wave-shaped chain of star-forming gas clouds, is oscillating through the Galactic plane while also drifting radially away from the Galactic Centre.

By day 1,041 after explosion, SN Ia-CSM 2018evt had produced an estimated 0.01 solar masses of dust in the cold, dense shell behind the supernova ejecta–circumstellar medium interaction, ranking it as one of the most prolific dust-producing supernovae ever recorded.

Cold ice-covered dust grains grow during their journey from the interstellar medium to protoplanetary disks. JWST observations show that this growth begins before the protostellar phase and provide quantitative insights into the grain growth process.

Deep, high-resolution polarization observations of HL Tau at 870  µm show gaps that have polarization angles with a notable azimuthal component and a higher polarization fraction than the rings.

The interstellar chemistry of carbon atoms is crucial to chemical complexity in the Universe. This experimental work suggests that C-atom reactions on interstellar ice surfaces contribute to C–C bond formation and chemical evolution towards complex organic species.

The size distribution of solid grains in dense clouds is a key parameter to constrain in order to understand grain growth, which influences the nature and timescale of the formation of protoplanets. A JWST study has quantified the grain size distribution by modelling the spectral absorptions arising from ice components of grains before protostellar collapse.

Surface-energy effects, such as the Kelvin effect, that regulate the formation of ice determine the observed abundance, distribution and evolution of CO in protoplanetary disks.

Shortly after the James Webb Space Telescope launched into space, the IR 2022 conference convened to identify and explore synergies between ground-based and space-based infrared observations.