open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/71742

Sounding-rocket microgravity experiments on alumina dust

英語

alumina dust

2018-09-19

Nature Publishing Group

Nature communications

9

3820

Alumina (Al2O3) is believed to be the first major condensate to form in the gas outflow from oxygen-rich evolved stars because of the refractoriness and that alpha-Al2O3. (corundum, most stable polymorph) is a potential origin of a 13 mu m feature that appears close to stars. However, no one has directly reproduced the 13 mu m feature experimentally, and it has remained as a noteworthy unidentified infrared band. Here, we report nucleation experiments on Al2O3 nanoparticles monitored by a specially designed infrared spectrometer in the microgravity environment of a sounding rocket. The conditions approximate to those around asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. The measured spectra of the nucleated Al2O3 show a sharp feature at a wavelength of 13.55 mu m and comparable in width to that observed near oxygen-rich AGB stars. Our finding that alpha-Al(2)O(3 )nucleates under certain condition provides a solid basis to elaborate condensation models of dust around oxygen-rich evolved stars.

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2041-1723