http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/22/supernova-cosmic-dust_n_6911278.html
Scientists have long known that “we are made of star stuff” — or, in other words, cosmic dust. But where all that dust came from, and how it survived, has been a bit of a mystery.
Previous research held that supernovas–explosions of stars in their death throes–spewed out massive amounts of dust into the early universe. However, astronomers didn’t know if that dust was able to withstand shockwaves from the explosion to serve as fodder for planets and stars to form.
Now, for the first time, an international team of astronomers has directly observed a cloud of cosmic dust that did survive in the turbulent environment of a supernova remnant, providing support for the theory that supernovas produced the vast amount of cosmic dust in the early universe.
“Our observations reveal a particular cloud produced by a supernova explosion 10,000 years ago contains enough dust to make 7,000 Earths,” lead researcher Dr. Ryan Lau, a postdoctoral associate for astronomy at Cornell, said in a written statement.
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