Abstract
While a significant fraction of silicate dust in stellar winds has a crystalline structure, in the interstellar medium nearly all of it is amorphous. One possible explanation for this observation is the amorphization of crystalline silicates by relatively ‘‘low’’ energy, heavy-ion cosmic rays. Here we present the results of multiple laboratory experiments showing that single-crystal synthetic forsterite (Mg2SiO4) amorphizes when irradiated by 10 MeV Xe ions at large enoughfluences.Usingmodeling,weextrapolatetheseresultstoshowthat0.1Y5.0GeVheavy-ioncosmicrayscan rapidly (� 70 Myr) amorphize crystalline silicate grains ejected by stars into the interstellar medium. Subject headingg cosmic rays — dust, extinction Online material: color figures
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
