Astronomers working with the James Webb Space Telescope have identified ice-covered dust particles in a galaxy five billion light-years away, remarkably similar in makeup to the dust found in our own Milky Way. The find, led by Tufts University astronomer Anna Sajina, offers a valuable comparison point for studying how stars and planets take shape in the early universe. Their research was published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Familiar Dust, Far From Home
The team focused on SSTXFLS J172458.3+591545, a galaxy with a heavily obscured active galactic nucleus. Using JWST’s mid-infrared instrument, the team detected carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water ice clinging to interstellar dust grains, the first time this specific mix has been seen so far from Earth.
Dust like this shapes how we see the early universe by blocking starlight and re-emitting it as infrared. Now that scientists can study the dust directly in such distant galaxies, they can fine-tune their measurements of things like star birth and black hole growth with far more accuracy.
For Sajina and her team, the key insight is that the basic building blocks of distant planetary systems appear to mirror those of our own. If planets were forming in that galaxy five billion years ago, they likely started with similar materials, a tantalising prospect for those studying habitability beyond our solar system.
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