Sydney Scientists Recreate Cosmic Dust to Probe Life’s Origins

Scientists say cosmic dust may explain how organic matter reached early Earth.
Fragments from dying stars regularly fall through Earth’s atmosphere as microscopic debris.
At the University of Sydney, researchers now recreate this dust in the laboratory.
PhD candidate Linda Losurdo produces cosmic dust from scratch using plasma physics.
The dust contains CHON molecules, key chemical building blocks of life.
Researchers debate whether these molecules formed on Earth or arrived from space.
Lab-made dust helps trace how meteorites acquired organic material.
The work may also inform experiments on early life beyond Earth.
The study appears in the Astrophysical Journal.