DUST DESTRUCTION RATES AND LIFETIMES IN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

Journal Article · Sun Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2015 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/799/2/158· OSTI ID:22364363

Temim, Tea; Dwek, Eli; Boyer, Martha L. ^[1]; Tchernyshyov, Kirill; Meixner, Margaret ^[2]; Gall, Christa ^[3]; Roman-Duval, Julia ^[4]

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1. Observational Cosmology Lab, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 366 Bloomberg Center, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark)
4. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)

The dust budget in galaxies depends on the rate at which dust grains are created in different stellar sources and destroyed by interstellar shocks. Because of their extensive wavelength coverage, proximity, and nearly face-on geometry, the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) provide a unique opportunity to study these processes in great detail. In this paper, we use the complete sample of supernova remnants (SNRs) in the MCs to calculate the lifetimes and destruction efficiencies of silicate and carbon dust. We find dust lifetimes of 22 ± 13 Myr (30 ± 17 Myr) for silicate (carbon) grains in the LMC, and 54 ± 32 Myr (72 ± 43 Myr) for silicate (carbon) grains in the SMC. The corresponding dust destruction rates are 2.3 × 10{sup –2} M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1} (5.9 × 10{sup –3} M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1}) and 3.0 × 10{sup –3} M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1} (5.6 × 10{sup –4} M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1}) for silicate (carbon) grains in the LMC and SMC, respectively. The significantly shorter lifetimes in the MCs, as compared to the Milky Way, are explained as the combined effect of their lower total dust mass and preferentially higher dust-to-gas (D2G) mass ratios in the vicinity of the SNRs. We find that the maximum dust injection rates by asymptotic giant branch stars and core collapse supernovae are an order of magnitude lower than the dust destruction rates by the SNRs, suggesting that most of the dust may be reconstituted in dense molecular clouds. We also discuss the dependence of the dust destruction rate on the local D2G mass ratio, ambient gas density, and metallicity, as well as the application of our results to other galaxies and dust evolution models.

• OSTI ID: 22364363
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 799; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS
CARBON
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COSMIC DUST
DENSITY
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
LIFETIME
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS
MASS
METALLICITY
MILKY WAY
SILICATES
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
SUPERNOVAE
WAVELENGTHS