A SPECK of dust that drifted into the Earth’s atmosphere from the edge of the solar system shows that complex organic molecules can form even in the chill near-emptiness of interstellar space.
The dust particle is a remnant of the material that filled our cosmic neighbourhood before the sun and planets formed 4.5 billion years ago. The material is carried in from the outskirts of the solar system by passing comets, and thousands of tonnes fall to Earth every year.
Simple organic molecules have been detected in this dust before, but the latest measurements prove that they pre-date the solar…
