Astronomy › Section N · Gas and dust between the stars › Topic N.2
Cosmic dust
Only about 1% of interstellar matter is dust, yet it hides much of our galaxy from view, reddens starlight, glows in the infrared and seeds the chemistry of new planets. Seeing through it, and correcting for it, is part of almost every measurement in astronomy.
In this topic
- Holes in the sky, or clouds?
- Four ways dust shows itself
- Dust glows in the infrared
- Reflection nebulae are blue
- Extinction and reddening
- Extinction in the distance equation
- Worked example: correcting a distance for dust
- Worked example: why infrared sees farther
- What the grains are
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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