Cosmic dust reveals the secrets of the emergence of the solar system

The little Muhammad Western

A team of researchers concluded that the age of parts of the cosmic dust dates back to the time before the establishment of the solar system, which means that studying the composition of this dust will help shed light on the prevailing conditions in the region that later witnessed the birth of the solar system.

The researchers reported that the oldest types of dust grains studied in the laboratory are about seven billion years old, that is, they are approximately two billion to three billion years larger than the solar system.

Astral dust is a universal memory
Interstellar dust is an important component of our galaxy. In its components, the fingerprints of the large cosmic events that occurred near it are preserved.

Unlike the parts of matter that contributed to the formation of the solar system, this dust maintains its properties that it acquired when the old stars exploded, so it is used to study the astral and chemical evolution of the galaxy.

Although dust represents only about 1% of the mass in the cosmic medium, it carries a large portion of the elements heavier than helium, including those that make up terrestrial planets, necessary for the emergence of life.

Scientists realize the importance of detecting the composition of dust in understanding the stages of the evolution of the universe and the origin of the solar system, so a team of researchers from American, Swiss and Australian universities finally determined an era that forms silicon granules in a micrometer size.

These granules are made of silicon chromium and have been deducted from the Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in the late 1960s and is characterized by containing organic materials that scientists believe are linked to the origins of life on Earth.

Dust is older than the sun
The study, published by the team in the "Journal of the National Academy of Sciences" on January 13th, showed that part of the dust grains that were studied date back between 1.5 to three billion years before the formation of our solar system.

It is thus the oldest solid, measurable specimen available for study in the laboratory, and provides invaluable insights into the chronology of our group.

Estimates of dust age are mainly based on advanced theoretical models that focus on the more common small dust grains and are based on inaccurate assumptions of the time dust spends in different interstellar regions before falling into a gravitational trap or being exposed to supernova shock waves.

Most of these models predict an average lifetime of cosmic dust, which is estimated at 100 million years, but modern models predict longer life periods of billions of years.

More accurate identification
In the new research, the team was able to determine more accurately the average dust life using the neon isotopes it contained and formed by galactic cosmic rays.

The isotope record in these grains allowed researchers to study the stars from which they were formed and to provide additional information on the evolution of the chemical composition of the galaxy.

The researchers concluded from the results reached in this study, that the region where the solar system originated from the galaxy was a place teeming with stars in different stages of development and some of them were more developed than the sun.

As all of this information will help us not only to better understand Hungarian chemical development, but also to have a more complete picture of how the material from which the solar system is formed (and everything we see around us) is formed in this study, says Reto Trabitzk, the co-author of the study. Region".