From François Arago to small bodies exploration: Polarimetry as a tool to reveal properties of thin dust clouds in the Solar system and beyond. (solicited talk)
Résumé
Two centuries ago, elaborate principles of physics were employed for the first time to establish the nature of a celestial body. Thanks to the polarimetric observations of Arago, the presence of dust particles was suspected in what is now named a cometary dust tail. Polarimetry has been used to better understand the properties of thin dust clouds, within the Solar System and beyond, and of airless small bodies. Striking advances in the last decades, together with the ground-truth provided by space missions, have established that polarimetry is a tool of major importance in astrophysics.