Mythology

THE FIRES OF HEAVEN
HIDDEN IN THE DUST
If the ancient people had
an ability to peep through the heaven's door, they would
create myths and legends
full of dusty and dirty places.

Today, thanks to powerful telescopes, we know about new worlds born out of dust, and old worlds dying and turning into dust. Once upon a time, our own body was nothing else than such a dust floating in the space around the newborn Sun, waiting for its destiny in this cosmic cycle of life and death.

If we want to study the origin of life on the Earth then we need to look at the other worlds that are just now opening their first chapter of Genesis. However, the view reveals complex opaque dust clouds, with the seed of planet formation hidden inside.

Thus, the correct description of the heaven's dawn depends on our ability to calculate the transfer of light and heat through such a cloud.

LELUYA is a computer
code, named after a mighty
goddess of lightning, which can perform these calculations



"Inner dusty regions of protoplanetary discs - I. High-resolution temperature structure"
Vinkovic, 2012, MNRAS, 420, 1541. ADS


"The Illumination and Growth of CRL 2688: An Analysis of New & Archival HST Observations"
Ballick et al., 2012, ApJ, 745, 188. ADS

Surfing on the light of planet forming dust clouds

One of the key ingredients in planet and comet formation studies is to understand and account for all mechanisms that influence dust movements through the protoplanetary disk. In a paper published in Nature, Dejan Vinkovic describes a new mechanism that moves particles in a previously unexpected way and has the ability to transport them over large distances. (READ MORE)


"Near infrared and the inner regions of protoplanetary disks"
Vinkovic et al., 2006, ApJ, 636, 348-361. ADS


"Bipolar outflow on the asymptotic giant branch - the case of IRC+10011"
Vinkovic et al. 2004, MNRAS, 352, 852-862.
ADS