A paper published in the Physical Review Letters journal written by Michael Bennet suggests that subatomic dust particles found on the surface of the Earth as a result of meteorite collision appear to be the result of stellar explosions. Stellar explosions that happened long before our solar system even existed. Possibly even before the Milky Way coalesced.

This is the conclusion that scientists have reached as part of the ongoing experimental nuclear physics research happening at Michigan State University. Here is where the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory can be found, and this is also where scientists were able to study and reveal the nature of what they now call ‘pre-solar grains,’ after prolonged researches on whether these particles belonged to classical nova explosions or not.

The researchers that were in charge of this project had a multitude of theories regarding the origin of said submicroscopic particles; according to them, they could have originated from a classical nova, but also from other phenomena such as thermonuclear explosions happening on the surface of small stars that can be found in a binary star system.

According to scientists, such naturally occurring but rare events where a system of planets orbits around not one, but two stars are the source of huge amounts of stellar material being released outwards into space. Some of this material is even believed to become the foundation and coalesced into the formation of new solar systems.

But ending up with this discovery took the scientists through numerous steps in order to be able to determine the origin of the particles. One of the first experiments being performed on this topic was conducted by the very same team working at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. What they did was to thoroughly study the radioactive nuclei of these particles, only to realize that they were dealing with a high amount of isotope silicon-30 that contains 14 protons and 16 neutrons; an isotope extremely rare on our planet.

This led the scientists to the conclusion that there is a process of heavy recycling taking place in our universe, where particles and material expelled by other stars doesn’t seem to be lost. Instead, it helps give birth to other solar systems, other stars, and other planets. And imminently, other types of spatial objects.

This process could repeat indefinitely as the material remains the same on a microscopic level. Whether this confirms the scientists’ theory that the amount of matter in our universe is not only finite but also actually the exact same amount that it has been since the Big Bang expansion billions of years ago is yet to be revealed.

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