ERC Starting Grant · 2025
Astrochemistry and chemistry emulation to simulate dust formation and growth around evolved stars
The chemical evolution of galaxies is driven by mass loss from stars at the end of their lives. The majority of stars will go through an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase, losing their outer layers by means of a stellar outflow and enriching the interstellar medium with the building blocks for the next generation of stars and planets. The outflow is triggered by stellar pulsations that aid dust formation, which then launches a dust-driven wind. Large-scale structures, like spirals and disks, are widely observed and thought to be caused by binary interaction with a (sub)stellar companion. Despite the importance of dust to launching the outflow, we still do not know exactly how it is…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.