Interstellar dust

Image credit: ESA/Planck Collaboration; M.-A. Miville-Deschêne

Interstellar dust is what polarizes starlight propagating through the magnetized interstellar medium. So in order to include observatiosn of starlight polarization (Work Package 1) into the Galactic magnetic field modeling software IMAGINE (Work Package 2), we need to have a reliable dust distribution.

This Work Package includes deriving an all-sky, 3D dust distribution, including polarizing and non-polarized grain contributions if needed, and including this into IMAGINE.

More info will be added as the project progresses.

Some relevant literature:

• Guillet et al (2018): Dust models compatible with Planck intensity and polarization data in translucent lines of sight
• Green et al (2018): Galactic reddening in 3D from stellar photometry - an improved map
• Planck Consortium: Planck 2018 results. XII. Galactic astrophysics using polarized dust emission