Interstellar distance is mostly empty , but not as empty as you might think . There are clouds of interstellar rubble – made of small particles from supernova explosion – and this dust amount into the Solar System as we move around the galaxy . The composition of this junk is cryptic , so theCassini spacecraftaround Saturn has been collecting it since 2004 to shed more weak .
ESA planetary scientist Nicolas Altobelli and his collaborators have now take apart the 36 interstellar dust metric grain detected by Cassini ; the number might seem little , but it ’s more than five meter that of late missions . The detritus was composed chiefly of atomic number 12 , Ca , Fe , Si , and oxygen . The grains seem to have go through repeated processes , sporadically thawing and reforming , before pass the Solar System .
The results , published inScience , will help astronomers translate the origin and development of interstellar detritus , its part in the cosmic cycle of matter , and the formation of Modern stars and planets . The detection is important , because it is normally extremely difficult to find and detect interstellar dust in the Solar System .
“ The Sun is move around the galaxy pith , and it encounters unlike interstellar cloud , ” Dr. Altobelli told IFLScience . “ We have been fly through the Local Interstellar Cloud for a few tens of K of class . We are moving through the cloud with a speed of 26 kilometers [ 16 mile ] per moment , so there ’s a flow of achromatic helium and interstellar debris entering the Solar System . ”
The grains interact with the Sun ’s gravity , its light , and the magnetized interplanetary playing area . The dust grains flow in a specific direction but they mix with local material . In the case of Saturn , this would be tiny ice quartz from the vitamin E - ring and the cryoactivity of its moon Enceladus .
“ These reflection were like looking for a needle in a haystack . We have millions of detections of Saturn - bind particles , and we detected very few interstellar grain , ” add Dr. Altobelli . But more than a decade of observations paid of . “ It is very nice to have seen their key signature in the dusty Saturnian background . ”
And the grains were ground to be unlike from the detritus found in the Solar System . “ We showed that these grains are representative of a well - miscellaneous and homogeneous population , and they are different from what you ’d regain in all meteorites , which are more closely related to their parent superstar , " said Dr. Altobelli .
Further studies of grains like this could even help oneself us better translate how planet have formed .
