There are two main substances that comprise the universe, gas and dust. While cosmic gas plays an important role in creating stars, cosmic dust functions as the basis for planets and living things.

For years, astronomers have been trying to trace the origin of cosmic dust, which was seen as the"seed" of all living things in the cosmos.

Recently an undergraduate student of SNU has given an answer to the question"What is the origin of cosmic dust?"

Mr. JANG Min Sung, a junior in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, discovered that cosmic dust existed in the early universe and that it was created by supernova explosions, which are seen at the death of very heavy stars.

This research finding was obtained by analyzing the data collected when the celestial body “GRB 071025”, 12.7 billion light years distant from the earth, had a gamma-ray burst in 2007.

His research results were published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, the most renowned journal in the field, on November 1.

He said,"When I served as a public service worker, I wanted to do something meaningful during my free time in the evening. I visited Professor IM Myung Shin of SNU's Department of Astronomy & Physics to ask if I could do just anything with him, and from that time on I began my research on this issue." Professor IM, who supervised Mr. Jang’s work for two years, was registered as a co-author of the article.

When asked,"It is not common for an undergraduate student to publish research results in top level journals. Didn’t you have any trouble?" Mr. Jang replied,"I could secure enough time, nearly 2 years, for the research because I was an undergraduate. But in the final stage of preparing the article, it was so hard for me to correct all the newly found problems that I nearly gave up publishing."

Written by LEE Tae Joon, SNU English Editor, leetjoon@hanmail.net  ?
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com