There’s a lot going on in space – some of it we have a good knowledge of, but the vast majority remains a mystery.

And of course one of the questions that everyone wants answers to is how life started in the universe, and where exactly the building blocks of life actually came from.

It’s a big topic of course, but thanks to a PhD student at the University of Sydney, we may be a little closer on the path toward a complete understanding.

That’s because, in the safe confines of a university of lab, Linda Losurdo has made cosmic dust from scratch.

How? Well, as detailed in her study, which was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal, Losurdo bombarded three gases (nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene) with significant amounts of electrical energy.

This experiment was designed to mirror the way in which gases and particles are constantly pummelled by ions and electrons.

The result? Cosmic dust, made out of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen – the essential building blocks for life.

Most commonly known to us on Earth as the stuff that we find in the few asteroids that make it to Earth, this lab-made cosmic dust will help us to understand what happens beyond our solar system in greater detail.

The resemblance of the lab-made dust to real, space-formed cosmic dust, is proven by the matching molecular details and infrared signals – which is extremely significant, as Losurdo explained in a statement:

“We no longer have to wait for an asteroid or comet to come to Earth to understand their histories. You can build analogue environments in the laboratory and reverse engineer their structure using the infrared fingerprints. This can give us huge insight into how ‘carbonaceous cosmic dust’ can form in the plasma puffed out by giant, old stars or in cosmic nurseries where stars are being born and distribute these fascinating molecules that could be vital for life. It’s like we have recreated a little bit of the Universe in a bottle in our lab.”

This is crucial for many reasons, but particularly in helping us understand the forces and conditions that are required for cosmic dust to actually form.

In turn, this could help us understand exactly what had to happen to make life in space possible.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun’s surface. Here’s what it means.