Abstract:
The overall understanding of cosmic dust particles is mainly inferred from the different Earth-based measurements
of interplanetary dust particles and space missions such as Giotto, Stardust, and Rosetta. The results from these
measurements indicate the presence of a wide variety of morphologically significant dust particles. To interpret the
light-scattering and thermal emission observations arising due to dust in different regions of space, it is necessary
to generate computer-modeled realistic dust structures of various shapes, sizes, porosity, bulk density, aspect ratio,
and material inhomogeneity. The present work introduces a Java package called Rough Ellipsoid Structure Tool
(REST), which is a collection of multiple algorithms, that aims to craft realistic rough-surface cosmic dust particles
from spheres, superellipsoids, and fractal aggregates depending on the measured bulk density and porosity.
Initially, spheres having Nd dipoles or lattice points are crafted by selecting random material and space seed cells to
generate a strongly damaged structure, rough surface, and poked structure. Similarly, REST generates roughsurface superellipsoids and poked structure superellipsoids from initial superellipsoid structures. REST also
generates rough fractal aggregates, which are fractal aggregates having rough-surface irregular grains. REST has
been applied to create agglomerated debris, agglomerated debris superellipsoids, and mixed-morphology particles.
Finally, the light-scattering properties of the respective applied structures are studied to ensure their applicability.
REST is a flexible structure tool that shall be useful for generating various types of dust structures that can be
applied to studying the physical properties of dust in different regions of space.
