Poster abstract details

Distribution of dust grains in circumstellar shells
A.J. van Marle, Z. Meliani, R. Keppens, L. Decin

Abstract

We present numerical simulations of the hydrodynamical interactions that produce circumstellar shells. These simulations include several scenarios, such as wind-wind interaction and wind-ISM collisions. In our calculations we have taken into account the presence of dust in the stellar wind. Our results show that, while small dust grains tend to be strongly coupled to the gas, large dust grains are only weakly coupled. As a result, the distribution of the large dust grains is not representative of the gas distribution. This may complicate the interpretation of infrared observations of circumstellar nebulae, since dust is the primary source of infrared radiation.