cosmic dust

American  

noun

Astronomy.

1. fine particles of matter in space.

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cosmic dust British  

noun

1. fine particles of solid matter occurring throughout interstellar space and often collecting into clouds of extremely low density See also nebula

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Etymology

Origin of cosmic dust

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Its highly sensitive infrared instruments can detect faint galaxies that earlier telescopes could not see, allowing astronomers to peer farther back in time and through thick clouds of cosmic dust.

From Science Daily • May 12, 2026

"You've got this small amount of cosmic dust raining down everywhere, but you've also got Earth sediments accumulating pretty fast."

From Science Daily • Nov. 13, 2025

Most of the emitted light, for example visible light and X-ray, get blocked by thick layers of cosmic dust and can’t pass through the accretion disk around them.

From Space Scoop • Mar. 27, 2025

Unlike visible light, radio waves from hot gasses are not blocked that easily by cosmic dust.

From Space Scoop • Mar. 27, 2025

A second position held by Helmholtz, Lord Kelvin, and others, suggests that minute living creatures may have come to the earth from elsewhere, in the cracks of a meteorite or among cosmic dust.

From The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told by Thomson, J. Arthur