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| Paper: |
Prospects and Problems |
| Volume: |
309, Astrophysics of Dust |
| Page: |
787 |
| Authors: |
Mathis, J.S. |
| Abstract: |
I give my thoughts about the future of achieving a deeper understanding of the nature of dust and its evolution in the many environments in which it plays a major role. The major hope I have is that a truly physical basis can be found for describing the complexities brought about by the turbulence (possibly strongly magnetic) that is probably present in most of the universe. The means of analyzing it are already close to being in hand. If the variations of the local physical conditions can be understood and predicted, we can make substantial progress in understanding many aspects of dust: its evolution, formation in stellar atmospheres, destruction, radiative transfer through it, its capture of gasphase ions and atoms, how well it can be separated from gas, and others. I also list several other aspects of the dusty universe that I hope will be clarified within the reasonable future, such as determination of elemental abundances within the interstellar medium. |
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