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Updated: Dec 17, 2025

Experimental Methods of Dust Charging and Mobilization on Surfaces with Exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation or Plasmas
Published on: April 3, 2018
Ice Coverage of Dust Grains in Cold Astrophysical Environments
Alexey Potapov1, Cornelia Jäger1, Thomas Henning2
1Laboratory Astrophysics Group of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Solid State Physics, Helmholtzweg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Abstract:
Surface processes on cosmic solids in cold astrophysical environments lead to gas-phase depletion and molecular complexity. Most astrophysical models assume that the molecular ice forms a thick multilayer substrate, not interacting with the dust surface. In contrast, we present experimental results demonstrating the importance of the surface for porous grains. We show that cosmic dust grains may be covered by a few monolayers of ice only. This implies that the role of dust surface structure, composition, and reactivity in models describing surface processes in cold interstellar, protostellar, and protoplanetary environments has to be reevaluated.
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