Scientists discover dust reservoirs, the building block of universe, in two supernovae
Dust, the building block for many things in our universe – planets in particular, has puzzled astronomers for several decades. Observations of two supernovae, Supernova 2004et and Supernova 2017eaw, by James Webb Space Telescope have supported the theory that supernovae played a key role in supplying dust to the early universe. “Direct evidence of this phenomenon has been slim up to this point, with our capabilities only allowing us to study the dust population in one relatively nearby supernova to date – Supernova 1987A, 170,000 light-years away from Earth,” said lead author Melissa Shahbandeh of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “When you look at the calculation of how much dust we’re seeing in SN 2004et especially, it rivals the measurements in SN 1987A, and it’s only a fraction of the age,” added program lead Ori Fox of the Space Telescope Science Institute. “It’s the highest dust mass detected in supernovae since SN 1987A.” Astronomers observed that young, distant galaxies are full of dust, but these galaxies are not old enough for intermediate mass stars, like the Sun, to have supplied the dust as they age.
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