Cosmic Dust Made of Nano-Onions?

[sanman]

Check out this article:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-04/rtsu-rss042403.php

Is cosmic dust made out of nano-onions? Why? What are the implications of this?

[erincss]

The implications of:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-04/rtsu-rss042403.php

are that there is abundant nano fabrication material there that can be used.

[Gordon D. Pusch]

eri...@aol.com (erincss) writes:

...Unfortunately, those materials are at least hundreds of light-years away ---
and we don't exactly have a current shortage of carbon here on Earth... :-/

Moreover, such "nano-onions" may not be a good feedstock for nano-fabrication,
since the carbon-carbon bond is very strong; it might cost a great deal of
energy to re-assemble them into something useful, since a lot of carbon-
carbon bonds will have to be broken and re-formed --- with potential for
loss of energy to heat at each step, since even nanotech must obey the
Second Law of Thermodynamics. Hydrocarbons or carbohydrates may be a much
better feedstock.

-- Gordon D. Pusch

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