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Cosmic dust that formed our planets traced to giant stars

Research published by nuclear physicists at the University of Edinburgh has helped solve a long-standing puzzle concerning the origin of some stardust grains formed before our Solar System was created and found in meteorites.

The Solar System was born out of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust grains. Some of these grains were made around previous generations of stars and are effectively tiny condensed pieces of stars.

While most of the original dust was destroyed during the formation of the Solar System to make up new rocks and planets, a small fraction of stardust survived and can be found in meteorites that reach the Earth. The chemical composition of these pre-solar grains reveals important clues about the nuclear processes inside stars that led to their formation. But tracing the grains to specific types of stars turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

A new study, led by Dr Lugaro of the Konkoly Observatory in Hungary, and published in Nature Astronomy has solved the puzzle by identifying the impact of a key nuclear reaction on the make-up of these grains.

See the full story here

http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2017/dust-that-formed-planets-is-traced-to-stars

Study reveals benefit to UK economy and bright futures for STFC’s PhD students

Bright prospects in both the public and private sectors, in the UK and internationally, have been highlighted by a survey on the first destinations for STFC-funded PhD students over the last four years.

Between 2012 and 2015, 941 PhD students were funded by STFC, in astronomy, nuclear physics and particle physics.  Of those, 28% of the graduates took up positions in the private sector, with over 70% of those working in software development, data analysis, engineering and finance.

The study also showed that nearly half of the PhD graduates moved into postdocs, of which around half were in the UK and half were overseas, split between both EU and non-EU countries.

Find out more here

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/files/first-destinations/
http://www.stfc.ac.uk/news/study-reveals-benefit-to-uk-economy/

Black holes hide in our cosmic backyard

Monster black holes sometimes play a cosmic game of hide and seek, shrouding themselves from view behind giant clouds of gas and dust, according to new research.

Scientists believe supermassive black holes lurk at the centres of most big galaxies, but many are hidden from the view of most telescopes.

Now astronomers at the universities of Durham and Southampton, working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), have confirmed in separate studies that two of these cosmic giants had been hidden by thick layers of gas and dust at the heart of galaxies near to our own Milky Way.

NGC 1448, a galaxy with an active galactic nucleus hidden by gas and dust, is seen in this image (Credit: : Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Using NASA’s space-based NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission, the scientists were able to detect high-energy X-ray emissions generated by the black holes as they feed on surrounding material.

The research could provide more information about supermassive black holes, allowing them to be studied in more detail.

The Durham team was co-funded by STFC. Ady Annuar, a postgraduate researcher in the Department of Physics, Durham University, led a study looking at the black hole at the centre of the NGC 1448 spiral galaxy.

NGC 1448 is one of the nearest large galaxies to our Milky Way at 38 million light years away (one light year is about six trillion miles).

The study found that the galaxy had a thick column of gas at the nucleus, hiding the central black hole that was only discovered in 2009.

Find out more here