I’m pretty new to Blender but am wondering if it is possible to create dust particles using the particle system that appear like the pictures bellow when light shines on them.
yes but it will take a huge amount of memory, because you will have to add an enormous number of extremely tiny particles. I would try faking it using a combination of particles ( including child particles ), spot halos ( spot lamps set to halo ) and maybe a volumetric material controlled by a texture, for which you can animate the offset to produce the illusion of turbulence.
If you want to make the top image where it’s very misty then I’d agree with @Modron - it would probably take too many tiny particles. But the bottom one looks easily achievable - it’s not many particles and the rest of the effect looks like it is can be done easily in the compositor (fog glow, lens flare). Anyway - the good news is volumetrics is in cycles now anyway so you can do it that way + some particles.
Cool I’l give it a shot thanks for the help!