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Home > Research Teams > Molecular systems, Astrophysics and Environment > Research > Theme 3: Grains and solids in astrophysics

Theme 3: Grains and solids in astrophysics

Carbonaceous interstellar dust characterization and lifecycle

The interstellar medium (ISM) is populated with different forms of carbonaceous solids: polyaromatic hydrocarbons, (hydrogenated-)amorphous carbons and (nano-)diamonds.
The polyaromatic materials give rise to characteristic emission bands known as the Aromatic Infrared Bands (AIBs), observed in the ISM in the mid- infrared. Still unidentified with a definite carrier, they are actively studied with our laboratory experiments dedicated to analogues production (Nanograins set-up), aiming at (…)

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Ices in the interstellar medium

Amongst the detected solids present in starless molecular clouds surrounding recently born stellar and still embedded objects or products of the chemistry in some mass loss envelopes, the so-called “ice mantles”, solid at a few tens of K, are of specific interest. They represent an interface between the refractory carbonaceous and silicates materials, that built the first interstellar grains, with the rich chemistry taking place in the gas phase. Molecules/radicals condense, react on ices, (…)

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Interplanetary dust formation and characterization

There exist several spectroscopic approaches to study the possible links between the young phases observed in protoplanetary disks and the primitive matter of our solar system: observational for distant objects (associated with adequate modeling of radiative transfer); collection and laboratory analysis of potentially very primitive extraterrestrial materials resulting from the formation process of the solar system.
Simulations of the solid phase of the interstellar medium and the (…)

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