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Hi, I'm Alicia and this is
NASA Now for December 21, 2011.
There is much more to space
than an empty lifeless void.
Today we're going to take
a look at cosmic dust
and learn how microscopic
particles floating
in space could hold the key to
the origins of the universe.
That's ahead, but first, here's
what's happening at NASA Now.
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Who says life doesn't
imitate art?
In September, NASA's Kepler
Space Telescope made an amazing
discovery in our galaxy in
the star constellation Cygnus,
about 200 light years
away from Earth.
Kepler space telescope
detected what's called a
circumbinary planet.
Unlike our planet,
which orbits the sun,
a circumbinary planet
orbits two suns.
This means if you were on
the surface of this planet,
now known as Kepler 16-B,
you could see double sunrises
and double sunsets,
like the planet Tatooine
from the movie Star Wars.
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At one time cosmic dust was
an obstacle for astronomers,
but today, that same dust takes
on new meaning in relation
to the evolution
of our universe.
To help us understand how
some of the smallest elements
in space could have
their origins
from the biggest explosion of
all time is Dr. Varoujan Gorjian
of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California.
Hello Dr. Gorjian,
what is cosmic dust?
Cosmic dust is really not
necessarily that different
from dust here on Earth.
They're very small particles
and they're a combination
of either a lot of atoms of a
particular kind or a combination
of a lot of molecules
that come together
and make these very small grains
about 1/100th the
size of your hair.
They're usually mostly made
up of carbon or silicon
but they also have many
of the other elements
in the periodic table
of elements.
Where does the dust come
from and how is it created?
Dust actually gets created
in the death of stars
and there are two
different kinds of deaths
that we can talk about.
In a more massive star, the
star collapses and it dies
in a massive explosion.
And in that explosion, there's a
lot of elements that are created
in that explosion and
then they're driven off
and then they eventually become
parts of interstellar dust.
The other way, which is
what will happen to our sun,
is a much more steady
death of the star.
It actually gets older and then
it gets, puffs up and it dredges
up these heavier elements that
have been created inside it;
mostly carbon and oxygen
and some others and it sort
of drives out in a stellar
wind and those then combine
to make interstellar dust.
How can you see cosmic dust?
We're mostly use to the world
that we see by our eyes,
which is optical light and
whenever there's dust between us
and something else you
see, it blocks the light.
And we see a lot of cosmic
dust that way because it blocks
out the light behind it.
But that's not the best way.
The best way is to
look at the wavelength
of light that dust emits.
Usually, anything that has
any temperature emits light.
Dust is actually warm,
not hot, but warm enough
that it emits a lot
of infrared light.
So if you look at
infrared light,
you can see dust all
over the universe.
So, obviously it's
here on Earth.
Can we see it?
Can we touch it?
It's very difficult to detect
it on the surface of the Earth.
Even though so much of it falls
down, it's very, very thin
and very tiny particles.
So it's very hard to tell
it apart from other dust
or other things that
are on the Earth.
But, if we go high up in the
atmosphere we can actually catch
it before it comes and
mixes in with Earth dust.
NASA has done this
for many years
where they fly planes very high
up and they capture the dust
by these very, very
high-flying planes.
The other way, of course, to
capture it is to send spacecraft
in the solar system,
which we have, and so,
they have collected dust
from within the solar system.
What can we learn by studying
the chemical elements of the sun
about the building
blocks for life?
All dust is made up of
elements that are created
within the stars and it's very
critical to study what's going
on within the stars to tell us
about what comes out of them.
And so, by combining that
with how solar systems evolve
and then eventually how planets
form and then how people come
to be on those planets,
this is all connected.
And so, we are in essence
stardust; all of the dust
that comes from the
stars is connected
through this long chain
and is part of what we are.
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The universe is full of
elements known and unknown.
Here's a great way
to get a handle
on all the known elements.
Teachers, look for the featured
lesson Chemical Elements:
Genesis - What Are We Made Of?
You'll find it on the
NASA Explorer Schools'
Virtual Campus.
Be sure to check
us out on Facebook
and tells us how
you like the show.
We'll see you next
time on NASA Now.
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NASA Now comes to you
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at NASA Explorer Schools.
