Like enormous jewel factories in the sky, the chaotic environments around some supermassive black holes crank out prodigious amounts of glass, rubies and sapphires, a new study finds. 

The inevitable breakdown of these materials into simpler components could account for much of the space dust in the universe—dust that is recycled to make stars, planets, and life.

Traces of these minerals, as well as sand and marble, were recently found by scientists analyzing light from the region around a nearby supermassive black hole using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The black hole was embedded in a quasar, a highly active and incredibly bright galaxy under construction.

"We were surprised to find what appears to be freshly made dust entrained in the winds that blow away from supermassive black holes," said study team member Ciska Markwick-Kemper of the University of Manchester in the U.K.

The finding, to be detailed in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal, could also help solve the mystery of where dust used to build the first generation of stars in the universe came from.

The space dust in our corner of the universe is thought to have been created when ancient stars resembling massive versions of our sun exploded as supernovas at the ends of their lives. But when the universe was new, sun-like stars hadn't been around long enough to die and make dust. So where did the dust needed to make those stars come from?

One idea is that the dust came from quasars, which are supermassive black holes surrounded by dusty, doughnut-shaped clouds and lots of radiation. They are the most active, budding galaxies known, where gravity lures material in but the resulting pressure blows material away on a constant cosmic tug-of-war that results in high rates of star formation and the creation of  new elements.

Read the rest of the article at: Yahoo

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