#AthenaNuggets: Interstellar Dust in Our Galaxy

In the Milky Way, dust particles constitute about 1% of the total interstellar medium, a tenuous mixture of dust and gas between the stars. In the last 50 years, the physical and chemical properties of dust have been identified using multi-wavelength observations.

Present and future astronomical observations of interstellar dust strongly depend on accurate modelling. For this purpose, recently several laboratories are working in the characterization of interstellar dust analogues.

Athena will allow us to explore interstellar dust features with a detail never achieved before and know a lot more about the chemical and physical properties as described by Elisa Costantini in the #AthenaNuggets 54.