Catch a falling star: cosmic dust may reveal how life began, and a Sydney lab is making it from scratch
Recreating cosmic dust may help answer questions about how meteorites hitting Earth came to contain the organic matter that they doGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastHow does one acquire star dust? One option, as the Perry Como song suggests, is to catch a falling star and...
<p>Recreating cosmic dust may help answer questions about how meteorites hitting Earth came to contain the organic matter that they do</p><ul><li><p>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></p></li></ul><p>How does one acquire star dust? One option, as the Perry Como song suggests, is to catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, so to speak: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X21000534?via%3Dihub#se0120">thousands of tonnes</a> of cosmic dust bombard the Earth each year, mostly vaporising in the atmosphere.</p><p>The asteroid and comet fragments that don’t burn up – known as meteorites and micrometeorites if they hit Earth – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/24/space-dust-from-42bn-year-old-asteroid-could-hold-key-to-preventing-cataclysmic-collisions-with-earth">provide scientists</a> with valuable clues about the cosmos. It’s why planetary scientists in the UK, kitted in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/17/cosmic-cathedrals-dust-rooftops-planetary-secrets-asteroids-comets">ghostbusters-like vacuum backpacks</a>, have scoured cathedral roofs for microscopic specks of the space stuff.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/feb/02/cosmic-dust-how-life-on-earth-began-meteorites-sydney-lab">Continue reading...</a>
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