Disclosing the origin of cosmic dust particles by establishing the synthetic model of dust formation

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K03707
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 16010:Astronomy-related
• Research Institution: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• Principal Investigator: Nozawa Takaya 国立天文台, 天文シミュレーションプロジェクト, 特別客員研究員 (90435975)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: ダスト / 超新星 / プレソーラー粒子 / スパッタリング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We aim at comprehensively understanding the formation processes of cosmic dust grains under the various environments in the universe. We construct the state-of-the-art dust formation model consistently taking account into "formation of molecules", "condensation of stable nuclei", "grain growth of by gas accretion", and "growth via grain-grain collisions". The dust formation model established in our study plays a crucial role in disclosing the total amount of dust grains in galaxies and the origins of planets by applying it to the hydrodynamic simulations in many kinds of astronomical objects. Our achievement is also the important basis to investigate the evolution of cosmic solid materials from the production of interstellar dust up to formation of planets.

Free Research Field

天文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究によって構築された“総合的”ダスト形成モデルは、AGB星や超新星の放出ガス、星間雲の衝撃波圧縮ガス、原始太陽系星雲ガスなど宇宙の様々な環境での固体微粒子形成メカニズムを紐解く有効かつ重要な手法であり、各天体でのダスト形成量やそのサイズ分布の解明に決定的な役割を果たす。従って本研究成果は、「宇宙におけるダストの起源」「惑星の原材料としての星間ダストの役割」という近代天文学における二つの大問題に迫ることができ、極めて重要な学術的意義を持つ。