REST: A Java Package for Crafting Realistic Cosmic Dust Particles

Abstract

The overall understanding of cosmic dust particles is mainly inferred from the different Earth-based measurements of interplanetary dust particles and space missions such as Giotto, Stardust, and Rosetta. The results from these measurements indicate the presence of a wide variety of morphologically significant dust particles. To interpret the light-scattering and thermal emission observations arising due to dust in different regions of space, it is necessary to generate computer-modeled realistic dust structures of various shapes, sizes, porosity, bulk density, aspect ratio, and material inhomogeneity. The present work introduces a Java package called Rough Ellipsoid Structure Tool (REST), which is a collection of multiple algorithms, that aims to craft realistic rough-surface cosmic dust particles from spheres, superellipsoids, and fractal aggregates depending on the measured bulk density and porosity. Initially, spheres having N d dipoles or lattice points are crafted by selecting random material and space seed cells to generate a strongly damaged structure, rough surface, and poked structure. Similarly, REST generates rough-surface superellipsoids and poked structure superellipsoids from initial superellipsoid structures. REST also generates rough fractal aggregates, which are fractal aggregates having rough-surface irregular grains. REST has been applied to create agglomerated debris, agglomerated debris superellipsoids, and mixed-morphology particles. Finally, the light-scattering properties of the respective applied structures are studied to ensure their applicability. REST is a flexible structure tool that shall be useful for generating various types of dust structures that can be applied to studying the physical properties of dust in different regions of space.