We may not see the stars in future!

London, Mar 2 (UNI) Hobnobbing with stars may not be all that soothing as the recently discovered 'space soot' has made the universe hazier.

American Researchers have revealed that limitless stretches of space are strewn with interstellar soot, making it harder to see very distant objects such as exploding stars or supernovae.

The study published in the journal Science suggests that space soot might be to blame for making distant stars appear more faint than expected, as reported by the Guardian.

''We're not saying this explains dark energy, but we're saying this stuff is out there and like dust in front of a lens, it might make these objects appear dimmer than they are,'' said Andrew Steele at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC.

Using a powerful microscope, they identified graphite ''whiskers'' only a few thousandths of a millimetre long embedded in minerals that form in the ancient heat of newborn suns and exploding stars.

''These whiskers are like rolled-up tubes of graphite and they could be generated in supernovae and blown out into space, or they could be thrown out of newborn stars,'' said Steele.

When the sun was very young, the solar wind, which is a stream of energetic particles, was exceptionally strong and could have blown vast clouds of graphite whiskers far out into space. The same may have happened around other stars, leaving a haze of soot throughout space.

Steele and his colleague Marc Fries made their discovery while examining three meteorites that formed shortly after the birth of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

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