colloquium Mikako Matsuura – Dust and molecules in dying stars

There is a large debate about how dust grains have been accumulated in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. One of the major sources of dust grains into the ISM  is evolved stars, such as AGB stars, red supergiants and supernovae (SNe). On the other hand, fast-expanding SN blast waves could be so efficient that theoretical models predict that almost entire ISM dust grains ejected by stars can be wiped off by SN explosion. There are still uncertainties in dust evolution in the ISM. We present several results about studies of AGB stars, planetary nebulae (PNe) and SNe in my talk. The first part is GAIA studies of AGB stars, showing the distribution of local dust output from AGB stars. The second part is studies of dust in PN, using JWST, indicating the final re-processing of dust grains before they are integrated into the ISM. Finally, JWST observations capture how dust grains are destroyed by SN blast waves in Supernova 1987A.