Research Projects

Interstellar dust is a crucial component of the interstellar medium (IsM), comprising 1% of the total mass. It absorbs, scatters, emits, and polarizes the electromagnetic field, providing about 30% of the luminosity of the Galaxy. Dust clouds in front of stars obscure visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, emitting absorbed energy in the infrared region, making stars redder and dimmer. Dust also forms the building block of stars, removes gravitational energy of collapsing clouds, and acts as a heating and cooling source of the IsM. Dust emission is a major nuisance for astrophysical and cosmological studies due to its interaction with starlight. Accurate depiction of dust emission is essential for removing foreground contamination from cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations. The primary objective of this project is to describe and understand thermal dust emission over the entire sky, focusing on the spectral energy distribution of dust emission. The project also aims to generate clean maps of CIB anisotropies by separating CIB emission from dust emission.