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hillsbororiver:
Scientists Discover Likely Source Of Dust That Formed Planets

By SETH BORENSTEIN The Associated Press

Published: Oct 11, 2007


WASHINGTON - Astronomers have taken a baby step in trying to answer the cosmic question of where we come from.

Planets and much on them, including humans, come from dust - mostly from dying stars - but where did the dust that helped form those early stars come from?

A NASA telescope may have spotted one of the answers. It's in the wind bursting out of supermassive black holes.

The Spitzer Space Telescope identified large quantities of freshly made space dust in a quasar about 8 billion light years from here.

Astronomers used the telescope to break down the wavelengths of light in the quasar to figure out what was in the space dust. They found signs of glass, sand, crystal, marble, rubies and sapphires, said Ciska Markwick-Kemper of the University of Manchester in England. She is the lead author of a study that will be published later this month in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Dust is important in the cooling process to make stars, which are predominantly gas. The leftover dust tends to clump together to make planets, comets and asteroids, said astronomer Sarah Gallagher, a co-author at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"In the end, everything comes from space dust," Markwick-Kemper said. "It's putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out where we came from."

Astronomers conclude the planets, including Earth, that formed in the past several billion years came from dust that was belched from dying stars.

That still leaves a question about where the dust from the first couple billion years of the universe came from, which helped form early generations of star systems.

"It's formed in the wind," of the black holes, Markwick-Kemper said. Gas molecules collide in the searing heat of the quasar and form clusters.

"These clusters grow bigger and bigger until you can call them dust grains," she said.

http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGB6NWYOM7F.html

indianabob:
Thanks Joe,

Good example of the latest in scientific explanation for the unexplainable.

I think scientist take special courses in making up stories that will convince the uneducated among us, legislators in particular, to support their research with our tax dollars.  This article is so full of 'black' holes, no pun intended, that it is laughable.  How did it get past peer review?

We need to better inform ourselves regarding the difference between science fact and science fable so that we can at least ignore if not refute some of these imaginative postulations.

Just my opinion,  Bob

musicman:
I think the whole reason for the thread is to show that we came from dust.  I find no fault with good science.  I also have no problem with the old dating of the universe.  Not even from a scriptural perspective.

Deborah-Leigh:

I enjoy these posts about our universe :)

I wonder where the Scientists say the wind came from. . . ;D  ;D

God is boundless, measureless and fathomless. How can measurements contain Him. How can thoughts capture Him. He is the source of all and thinking outside the box of our limitations is always refreshing! Like going onto an aeroplane and looking down and seeing our lives from yet another perspective way above our own.

Holidays are necessary ;D

Peace to you

Arcturus :)

SandyFla:
I enjoy these scientific threads about the universe too. :)

But I always thought black holes had such intense gravity that nothing could get out.  ???

Sandy

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