The stardust revolution

The detailed, extensive laboratory analysis of meteoritic stardust provides us with revolutionary methodologies to investigate astrophysical questions.

Decoding the message carried by stardust is challenging, but opens up fresh opportunities, leading to breakthroughs into our understanding of the creation of nuclei and dust in stars.

The vast majority of stardust show the signature of an origin from stars born with mass between roughly 1 and 10 solar masses, when they evolve through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase before disappearing from sight into white dwarfs. On the AGB they synthetise elements in their deep, hot layers, mix them to the surface, and shed them into their surrounding by stellar winds, also in the form of dust grains.

I will present some examples of how the study of stardust grains coupled with nuclear physics experiments and theory is advancing our knowledge of the origin of the elements and of dust in the universe.

Dr.ssa Maria Lugaro del Konkoly Observatory di Budapest