Using both the Shortand Long-wavelength Spectrometers on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), we have obtained infrared spectra of the Herbig Ae systems AB Aur and HD 163296. In addition, we obtained ground-based N band images of HD 163296. Our results can be summarized as follows: (1) The main dust components in AB Aur are amorphous silicates, iron oxide and PAHs; (2) The circumstellar ...

The dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), an ideal analog of primordial galaxies at high redshifts, differs markedly from that in the Milky Way by exhibiting a steeply rising far-ultraviolet extinction curve, an absence of the 2175 extinction feature, and a local minimum at ∼12 mm in its infrared emission spectrum, suggesting Å the lack of ultrasmall carbonaceous grains (i.e., polycyclic ar...

Using a radiative transfer code we have studied the dust shells of the two OH/IR stars IRAS 17004-4119 (OH344.93) and IRAS 17411-3154 (OH357). The ISO-SWS spectra of both sources exhibit deep amorphous silicate absorption bands at 9.8 and 17.5 μm together with crystalline silicate emission bands at 33.6, 40.5 and 43 μm. In both sources the 9.8 μm silicate band shows a shoulder at 11.2 μm. The a...

A giant impact is an increasingly popular explanation for the formation of the northern lowland on Mars. It is plausible that at the impact time both Mars and the impactor were differentiated with solid silicate mantles and liquid iron cores. Such a large impact likely resulted in merging of the cores of both bodies, a process which will have implications on the thermal state of the planet. We ...

Like many others, silicate solids dissolve when placed in contact with water. In a given aqueous environment, the dissolution rate depends on the composition and the structure of the solid and can span several orders of magnitude. Although the kinetics of dissolution depends on the complexities of both the dissolving solid and the solvent, a clear understanding of which structural descriptors o...

Mineralogy, microbial ecology, and mineral weathering in the subsurface are an intimately linked biogeochemical system. Although bacteria have been implicated indirectly in the accelerated weathering of minerals, it is not clear if this interaction is simply the coincidental result of microbial metabolism, or if it represents a speciŽ c strategy offering the colonizing bacteria a competitive ec...

The melt rheological properties of layered silicate nanocomposites with maleic anhydride (MA) functionalized polypropylene are contrasted to those based on ammonium-terminated polypropylene. While the MA functionalized PP based nanocomposites exhibit solid-like linear viscoelastic behavior, consistent with the formation of a long-lived percolated nanoparticle network, the single-end ammonium fu...

A series of novel vanadium silicates with open-framework and microporous structures has been synthesized under mild hydrothermal conditions. Ten distinct framework types have been identified that all have structures based on cross-linking single silicate sheets with square pyramidal V(IV)O(5) units to give compounds with the general formula A(r)[(VO)(s)(Si(2)O(5))(p)(SiO(2))(q)].tH(2)O, where A...