Unveiling the double origin of cosmic dust in the distant Universe

An international team of researchers sheds new light on the physical processes involved in the production of dust in these ‘giants’
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Two billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe was still very young. However, thousands of huge galaxies, rich in stars and dust, were already formed. An international study, led by SISSA, now explains how this was possible. Scientists combined observational and theoretical methods to identify the physical processes behind their evolution and, for the first time, found evidence for a rapid growth of dust due to a high concentration of metals in the distant Universe. The study, published in Astronomy&Astrophysics, offers a new approach to investigate the evolutionary phase of massive objects. (Image: ESO)