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The cosmic journey of dust grains – from nucleation to planetary system

Lund, Kira ; Johansen, Anders LU and Agertz, Oscar LU (2025) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 543(2). p.1288-1302
Abstract

Dust is essential to the evolution of galaxies and drives the formation of planetary systems. The challenge of inferring the origin of different pre-solar dust grains from meteoritic samples motivates forward modelling to understand the contributions of low- and high-mass stars to dust in our Solar system. In this work we follow the evolution of dust with tracer particles within a hydrodynamical simulation of a Milky Way-like isolated disc galaxy. We find that nearly half of the grains released from stars lose less than 10 per cent of their initial mass due to thermal sputtering in the interstellar medium (ISM), with an average degree of atomization ∼10 per cent higher for dust grains released by supernovae (SNe) relative to asymptotic... (More)

Dust is essential to the evolution of galaxies and drives the formation of planetary systems. The challenge of inferring the origin of different pre-solar dust grains from meteoritic samples motivates forward modelling to understand the contributions of low- and high-mass stars to dust in our Solar system. In this work we follow the evolution of dust with tracer particles within a hydrodynamical simulation of a Milky Way-like isolated disc galaxy. We find that nearly half of the grains released from stars lose less than 10 per cent of their initial mass due to thermal sputtering in the interstellar medium (ISM), with an average degree of atomization ∼10 per cent higher for dust grains released by supernovae (SNe) relative to asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star grains. We show through SN remnant model variations that SN dust survival is primarily shaped by the SN bubble environment in the first million years (Myr) after the explosion rather than by its evolution during 102—103 Myr in the ISM. The AGB/SN ratio of dust grains incorporated into newly formed stars approaches 0.8 after a few hundred Myr of galactic evolution. Our analysis also shows that star-forming particles with short (<10 Myr) free-floating time-scales in the ISM are predominantly released from SNe rather than AGB stars.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
galaxies: evolution, galaxies: star formation, methods: numerical, planetary systems
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
543
issue
2
pages
15 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:105017753763
ISSN
0035-8711
DOI
10.1093/mnras/staf1562
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c6b1e0a9-337e-42a3-8742-30d5e5cb8b9d
date added to LUP
2025-11-25 14:22:16
date last changed
2025-11-25 14:23:23
@article{c6b1e0a9-337e-42a3-8742-30d5e5cb8b9d,
  abstract     = {{<p>Dust is essential to the evolution of galaxies and drives the formation of planetary systems. The challenge of inferring the origin of different pre-solar dust grains from meteoritic samples motivates forward modelling to understand the contributions of low- and high-mass stars to dust in our Solar system. In this work we follow the evolution of dust with tracer particles within a hydrodynamical simulation of a Milky Way-like isolated disc galaxy. We find that nearly half of the grains released from stars lose less than 10 per cent of their initial mass due to thermal sputtering in the interstellar medium (ISM), with an average degree of atomization ∼10 per cent higher for dust grains released by supernovae (SNe) relative to asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star grains. We show through SN remnant model variations that SN dust survival is primarily shaped by the SN bubble environment in the first million years (Myr) after the explosion rather than by its evolution during 10<sup>2</sup>—10<sup>3</sup> Myr in the ISM. The AGB/SN ratio of dust grains incorporated into newly formed stars approaches 0.8 after a few hundred Myr of galactic evolution. Our analysis also shows that star-forming particles with short (&lt;10 Myr) free-floating time-scales in the ISM are predominantly released from SNe rather than AGB stars.</p>}},
  author       = {{Lund, Kira and Johansen, Anders and Agertz, Oscar}},
  issn         = {{0035-8711}},
  keywords     = {{galaxies: evolution; galaxies: star formation; methods: numerical; planetary systems}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{1288--1302}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{The cosmic journey of dust grains – from nucleation to planetary system}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1562}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/mnras/staf1562}},
  volume       = {{543}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}