Scientists create cosmic dust in the oven ... microwave

As the first solid material formed in the early history of star systems, cosmic dust is the key to understanding the chemical origin of stars, planets and even life.

Although samples of cosmic dust have come to Earth in the form of interplanetary particles, comet dust, and meteorites, they are rarely representative.

Therefore, the properties of this material can be studied through astronomical observations or by testing simulated dust generated in the laboratory.

However, creating our very own cosmic dust on Earth was previously an expensive, complicated and time-consuming process.

British scientists have shown that conventional kitchen microwaves can be used to create laboratory dust in the laboratory - images before and during the drying process.

"The composition of the cosmic dust is not well understood and currently cannot collect samples for analysis," explained Stephen Thompson of Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron particle accelerator.

"So being able to create similar dust samples in microwave ovens can help shed light on our early solar system history."

In their study, Dr. Thompson and his colleagues studied a method of producing solid materials from small materials called sol-gel processes .

Sol-gels start with a consistency similar to hand cream - and therefore must be dried to form dust samples.

However, air drying of sol-gels is a time-consuming process, which can take about 24 hours to obtain a finished sample.

Another complication comes from the form of consisting of iron - which here on Earth, tends to form invisible races in space.

"Although we see evidence of iron in stars and planets, we don't see it in interstellar environments. This is a problem of iron deficiency," explained Dr. Thompson.

"One explanation might be that iron escapes as a nanoparticle. Another thing is that iron is" locked "in silicate minerals, too low amounts that will greatly affect the spectral properties of other things that come out. now in the form of pure magnesium silicate dust ".

Dust-generating sol-gels can be set up to combine with iron, but that requires special drying conditions, with a vacuum-based process developed by the previous team that took days to complete - An even more time-consuming process.

Cosmic dust in the Horse Head Nebula, as seen with the Hubble Space Telescope

To see if they could speed up sol-gel drying in both cases, the researchers turned to a 900-watt domestic microwave.

They used a microwave to dry gels made with and without iron, comparing them to the same gel that was dried both in conventional ovens and vacuum ovens.

In their study, the team focused on making magnesium iron silicate, similar to the dust particles that form in the atmosphere around red giant stars.

According to the researchers, reusing the microwave is a great, cheap and fast method - it only takes 10 minutes to make samples of cosmic dust from a gel sol in the laboratory.

They hope that this technique will be brought up by other astrophysicists.

"We cannot accurately reproduce the conditions for the formation of cosmic dust here on Earth , " said Dr. Thompson.

"No similar method of producing dust samples in a lab can simulate all the dust we observe around stars and in interstellar environments."

"However, by creating and describing these patterns and comparing them with astronomical data to see where they are similar [.]".

Article author Anna Herlihy said."Who would have guessed a kitchen microwave could create cosmic dust"

"When the initial research is completed, the researchers will seek to explore by their microwave-based method to create dust samples with different preparations."

"Each model helps us take one step further to understand more about cosmic dust and how planetary systems form , " said article author Anna Herlihy, who did most of the experimental work behind the study. .

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