The Dusty UniverseAnna Quider

Institute of AstronomyUniversity of Cambridge

What is dust, anyways?

Earth Dust

Earth Dust

Skin Cells Spores

Dust Mites Fibers

Ground Rock

But what is dust from outer space?

It’s tinySingle grains are less than 0.000001 cm (or 1μm) in size.

SiO2 molecules

5μm

Many different componentsMost common are silicone, oxygen, and carbon but

depends on the kind of dust in question.

Many different components

Dust life cycle

Dust life cycle

Dust life cycle

Dust life cycle

Dust life cycle

Dust life cycle

Dust life cycle

How we know about dust

Light’s interaction with dustCollect samples

Moon

Moon

Made by billions of years of collisions on lunar surface.Shown: recent Centaur and LCROSS impacts.

Moon

Possibly problematic for instruments.

RegolithRegolith Processing on the MoonProcessing on the Moon

ISR (InSect Robot)

ISR

Buried

Habitat

Mirror

Mirror

LUNOX / LLH Storage

Mars

Mars

Mars

Dust storms can affect our robots on Mars.

Mars

15 May 2005as seen by Spirit rover

Comets

Messengers from edge of solar system

Comets

Comets

Ingredients from early solar system:ice, dry ice, olivine, smectite clay, polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbons, spinel, metallic iron, the silicate enstatite, the carbonate dolomite, and the iron sulfide marcasite

Stardust Mission

Saturn

Newly discovered dust ring around Saturn10-20 particles per cubic km of space

Young Stars

Young Stars

Dust and Light

Local galaxies

Sub-mm galaxies