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Polarising light with interstellar dust
Formation of the Solar System

On a clear moonless night, take a look at the glowing band of the Milky Way
and you will see some dark patches that look almost like holes in the shining
milky band. With a bit of luck, you’ll also spot a “shooting star” – a shining
meteor flashing across the sky. These two different sky-sights are both
examples of space dust

THE SPACE between the stars is not quite a perfect vacuum. A volume of
space the size of a small matchbox would contain – on average – half a dozen
atoms, mainly hydrogen. Spread much more thinly are the solid particles,…

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