Milky Way's Center Harbors Supernova 'Dust Factory'

Sifting through the center of the Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have made the first direct observations - using an infrared telescope aboard a modified Boeing 747 - of cosmic building-block dust resulting from an ancient supernova. "Dust itself is very important because it's the stuff that forms stars and planets, like the sun and Earth, respectively, so to know where it comes from is an important question," said lead author Ryan Lau, Cornell postdoctoral associate for astronomy, in research published March 19 in Science Express. "Our work strongly reinforces the theory that supernovae are producing the dust seen in galaxies of the early universe," he said. Lau explains that one of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies - forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang - contain so much dust.



Read more about Milky Way's Center Harbors Supernova 'Dust Factory'