Stardust

Unlike the stuff underneath your TV cabinet, interstellar dust plays a major part in the total luminosity of the galaxy. Scientists have used long-term observational data to see how interstellar dust correlates with a star’s brightness.

An international team of astronomers has detected the dusty remains of some of the earliest stars to shine on the universe. The light from the galaxy, known as A2744_YD4, left its source when the universe was 600 million years old - only four percent its current age.

Good things come in microscopic packages – at least, so says NASA. According to the space agency, our first ambassadors from interstellar space may be seven particles measuring only about two microns, that were returned to Earth by the unmanned Stardust probe in 2006.