Abstract
The interstellar extinction curve is a particularly useful tool for probing the grain size distribution (Greenberg 1978). Typically, the extinction at a wavelength, λ, is dominated by grains with sizes, a=λ/2π2 and extinction cross sections, Cext≈πa2. Thus, jhe NIR-visible extinction is dominated by grains with a size of about 3000Å, while the FUV extinction results from about 100Å grains. The steep FUV rise of the extinction curve implies that small grains dominate the total geometric cross section of the dust, a ma or feature of all dust models (Greenberg and Hong 1974; Mathis et al. 1977 Conversely, since extinction below 1000Å has not been measured and since IR extinction is small and difficult to measure, the size distribution outside of these limits is not constrained very well. Here the small size limit of the interstellar grain size distribution will be reviewed.
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Tielens, A.G.G.M. (1990). The Size Distribution of Interstellar Dust. In: Watt, G.D., Webster, A.S. (eds) Submillimetre Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 158. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-6850-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-6850-0_4
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