Astronomers are studying dust that may be similar in some galaxies.
An international research team from the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University discovered the same type of interstellar dust found in the Milky Way. This interstellar dust was found in a distant galaxy 11 billion light-years from Earth. This type of dust, however, has been rare in other galaxies, and the new discovery plays an important role in understanding how and why interstellar dust with the same composition can sometimes form in different galaxies.
The discovery was made after a flash illuminated part of outer space. afterglow. Shown on the left is a pre-flash image of the PAN-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. On the right is an image of the same part of the sky taken with the Scandinavian Optical Telescope a few minutes after the explosion was detected by Swift's satellite.
Dust in galaxies
Galaxies are highly complex structures that are made up of many distinct parts such as stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. Even though dust represents only a small fraction of the total amount of matter in a galaxy, aeon plays a major role in how stars are formed and why light from stars escapes galaxies. Dust particles can both absorb and scatter light. Dust is also essential for the formation of planets. Our own planet Earth was also formed from dust.
How do you measure the volume of dust 11 billion light-years away?
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Dust in galaxies is made up of small particles of carbon, silicon, iron, aluminum, and other heavier elements. The Milky Way has a very high content of coal dust, which studies show is very rare dust in other galaxies. However, now a similar type of dust has been found in some very distant galaxies, which scientists have been able to record using observations using gamma rays.
“Our spectra show that the presence of atomic carbon leads to the formation of a flash that helps detect dust,” says scientist Kasper Heinz.