Is Dust the Best Thing in the Universe? Part 4: We Owe Dust Our Lives

The protoplanetary disk around the young star HL Tau, imaged by ALMA. The dark gaps are where dust has accumulated into proto-planets, with the bright rings showing the dust grains that haven't yet combined into anything larger. (CC BY 4.0, ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO)

No dust, no way to cool a collapsing gas cloud. No way to cool it, no stars. No dust, no first rung on the ladder from grain to pebble to planet. The substance I spent two articles complaining about turns out to be the substance that makes me possible.

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