The “elusive organic material” was traced to a region of space known as the Local Bubble by astronomers at Keele University in the UK. The mystery material was first discovered nearly 100 years ago within the confines of the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers led by Keele University’s Dr Jacco van Loon have identified the substance after investigating the Local Bubble. The Local Bubble, where our solar system resides, is a region of space believed to have been created by massive stars dying an explosive death.
Within the Local Bubble, vast quantities of dust and stellar material drift in between the stars.
But almost 100 years ago, astronomers Mary Lea Heger noticed some unusual substance was affecting the inbound light from these stars.
In essence, the mystery material absorbed light at very specific colours, in a way not consistent with normal space dust.
The finding has led scientists to believe the material was organic and have dubbed the effect “Diffuse Interstellar Bands” or DIBs.
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Some of the organic material may have even made its way to Earth.
Dr Jacco van Loon, who is the director of Keele Observatory, said: “What our discovery means is that whatever this material is, it can survive in pretty harsh conditions.
“That, or there must be small, dense structures threaded throughout the Local Bubble.
“When the Sun and the Earth move through this material, it is not unthinkable that some of it may rain upon Earth, so there is a possibility that it could have brought some vital ingredients for life.”
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Since the original discovery was made nearly a century ago, astronomers have found many more DIBs in space.
However, Dr van Loon’s team has for the first time found the enigmatic substance inside of the Local Bubble.
Their findings were published on July 8 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Dr van Loon said: “The DIBs are most easily seen in front of distant stars, but we wanted to know whether this stuff can also be found closer to home.
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“To do this, we had to look at nearby, bright stars and get a very good signal on them.
“We aimed to reach a precision of at least one in a thousand, while most astronomers are happy – if not ecstatic – to get a precision of one in a hundred.
“This required careful observation and processing of the data. But we succeeded, and we saw the characteristic pattern of DIBs.
“In short, we have found this mystery material inside the Local Bubble for the first time.”
