Evidence for interstellar origin…

In a recent paper in Science, a collaboration of 65 professional scientists and more than 30,000 citizen scientists of Stardust at Home, led by SSL Research Physicist Andrew Westphal, reported on the identification and analyses of tiny particles that are likely to be the first particles ever identified from interstellar space, outside our Solar System. Previously, much of our knowledge of interstellar dust has come from observations of using telescopes, but these analyses were carried out using laboratory instruments, including x-ray microscopes the size of shopping malls. The particles were surprisingly diverse in their composition and structure. The number of large particles was also a surprise, and implies that many particles in interstellar space have a complex, open structure, more like snowflakes than solid rocks. These particles are likely to be very similar to the original building blocks of the Solar System the Sun, the planets, the Earth, and us.