A calculation of the mean age of interstellar dust particles

Date
1989
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Abstract

This thesis aims to compute the mean age of interstellar dust particles using a sputtering and recycling model originally formulated by Liffman and Clayton. The ages of the particles are evaluated after a period of 6 × 10\sp9 years, deemed here to be the age of our Galaxy, when the Solar System formed. I find a correlation between resulting particle sizes and their mean age. The consequence of this correlation is that if interstellar particles can be sorted dynamically by size, then the conglomerations of these size populations as dust grains will be composed of matter that is of differing ages. This age variation in grains of differing sizes will produce isotopic variations, or anomalies, due to the time dependent nature of secondary versus primary nucleosynthesis. The most important example of such an observed anomaly is the 5% enrichment of \sp16O in inclusions of Al\sb2O\sb3 in meteorite structures relative to the abundance of \sp16O in the solar gas. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

Description
Degree
Master of Science
Type
Thesis
Keywords
Astronomy, Astrophysics
Citation

Scowen, Paul Andrew. "A calculation of the mean age of interstellar dust particles." (1989) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13392.

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