Dust Extinction Curves
In our recent study (
Decleir et al. 2022), we measured and analyzed a sample of 15 near-infrared (NIR) Milky Way dust extinction curves, for the first time using spectroscopy (
IRTF/SpeX spectra) instead of broadband photometry. We found that both the average and the individual extinction curves can be well represented by a power law. Furthermore, the shape of the extinction curve depends on R(V), the total-to-selective extinction, which is a proxy for the average dust grain size along the line of sight. We provide an average NIR extinction curve, as well as an R(V)-dependent curve that can be applied to account for dust extinction in a large variety of NIR observations in the Milky Way. The data as well as the code are publicly available.
Dust Depletions
To get a more detailed understanding of the dust grain composition and its dependence on environment, I am leading an HST GO program to measure dust abundances from UV spectra in a sample of Milky Way sightlines. I am measuring the gas and dust abundances of the elements that make up the dust (C, Si, Mg, Fe and O), which will help to determine the dominant dust grain growth mechanism (coagulation vs. accretion), as well as the precise composition of dust grains.
DustKING
Dust attenuation curves of nearby galaxies
Dust attenuation is still one of the main uncertainties when recovering galaxy properties such as star formation rates, star formation histories, dust masses and stellar masses at all redshifts. Dust attenuation curves vary significantly from galaxy to galaxy and even within a galaxy. However, the standard shallow and bumpless attenuation curve from Calzetti et al. (2000) is still commonly used to account for the effects of dust in most extragalactic studies. To improve on this, I launched the DustKING project to study the variation of UV dust attenuation in nearby galaxies, thereby expanding the UV coverage with Swift UVOT (Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope) images.
