One of astronomy's most enduring mysteries -- why is the Universe so full of interstellar dust and where did this all of this dust come from -- has finally received a plausible explanation.

New observations confirm interstellar dust does indeed come from supernovae, a theory long thought to have been implausible. Supernovae are indescribably massive explosions that occur when stars run out of fuel (hydrogen), collapse into themselves and finally explode.

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The Big Bang is thought to have flooded the Universe only with gases, mostly hydrogen that then formed the first stars and galaxies. The question left unanswered by this theory is where all the interstellar dust came from.

What scientists did know, however, was that inside stars, hydrogen nuclei fused into heavier elements and dust. Models suggest supernovae generate massive amounts of dust it hurls into space in an expanding mass of material called a supernova remnant.

But this supernova remnant (and the dust it created) is supposed to have been obliterated after it collided with the cooler gas between stars known as the interstellar medium.

New research has finally found out why the dust survived despite this annihilating event.

A team of astronomers using FORCAST (the Faint object Infrared Camera Telescope) mounted aboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy or SOFIA (a modified 747 jumbo jet) studied Sagittarius A East, a 10,000 year-old supernova remnant near the center of the Milky Way.

Using this instrument, researchers were able to directly observe this supernova. These observations led the team to conclude that 7% to 20% of the dust originally created by a supernova survived the shock wave, leading to the dust found in interstellar space.

"Dust itself is very important because it's the stuff that forms stars and plants, like the sun and Earth, respectively, so to know where it comes from is an important question," said Ryan Lau, lead author of the new study.

"Our work strongly reinforces the theory that supernovae are producing the dust seen in galaxies of the early universe."

"There have been no direct observations of any dust surviving the environment of the supernova remnant ... until now ...." said Lau.