Ancient grains of dust from space can be found on Earth − and provide clues about the life cycle of stars

The dark areas in this image of the Carina Nebula are molecular clouds. NASA, ESA, N. Smith (U. California, Berkeley) et al., and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

In space, there are clouds that contain gas and dust ejected from stars. Our solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago from such a molecular cloud. Most of these dust grains were destroyed during solar system formation. However, a very small amount of the grains survived and remained intact in primitive meteorites. They are called presolar grains because they predate the solar system. I am a scientist who studies the early solar system and beyond, focusing mainly on presolar grains.

The picture is an image of such a grain taken by a scanning electron microscope. This grain is silicon carbide (SiC). The scale bar is 1 micron, or one millionth of a meter (39.37 inches). The grain was extracted from the Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969.