Overview
- University of Sydney researchers generated carbon-rich grains by applying about 10,000 volts to nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene in a glow‑discharge plasma.
- The synthesized material contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen (CHON), the elements common to organic compounds in interstellar and cometary dust.
- Infrared measurements of the lab grains align with astronomical observations, validating the experiment as a realistic analogue of space dust formation.
- The peer-reviewed paper, titled “Carbonaceous cosmic dust analogues distinguish between ion bombardment and temperature,” was published in The Astrophysical Journal (DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae2bfe).
- Planned systematic tests will disentangle ion bombardment versus thermal effects and underpin a public spectra database to help interpret meteorites and spot life-relevant chemistry in space.