Cosmic dust created in a lab by a student may shed light on origins of life

A University of Sydney doctoral student reproduced cosmic dust in a lab by running nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene through a glow-discharge plasma; the few milligrams of nanoparticles were collected on silicon wafers and the results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Linda Losurdo, a doctoral student in materials and plasma physics at the University of Sydney, recreated a small amount of cosmic dust in the laboratory to provide a controllable analogue of freshly formed interstellar particles. She and a coauthor used nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene in a vacuumed glass tube, then applied about 10,000 volts for an hour to create a glow-discharge plasma that produced dusty nanoparticles. The particles were allowed to deposit on silicon wafers and then analyzed. The work was published in The Astrophysical Journal and is presented as a tool to study how organic molecules and early building blocks of life might form in stellar environments. Key details: - The experiment was led by Linda Losurdo, a doctoral student, with coauthor David McKenzie at the University of Sydney. - The team started with nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene, vacuumed a glass tube, and applied roughly 10,000 volts for one hour to generate a glow-discharge plasma. - The procedure yielded a few milligrams of "dusty nanoparticles" that were collected on silicon wafers for analysis. - The goal was to recreate plausible space-like conditions, such as those near giant stars, supernova remnants or young nebulae, to study early dust chemistry. - The researchers plan to vary production conditions to build a database of different dust analogues and aim to match some laboratory samples to specific objects like meteorites. - Independent scientists quoted in the article describe the technique as a convincing laboratory approach that can help test models of how organic matter evolves in space. Summary: The study offers a controlled method to make dust that resembles pristine cosmic particles, giving researchers a laboratory analogue to probe how organic compounds and amino-acid precursors may form in energetic stellar environments. The authors plan to change production parameters to expand a reference database and work toward linking laboratory samples with samples from space.