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"An international team of astronomers involving researchers at the Australian National University have announced the completion of a large survey of the nearby Universe. Amongst their findings is that 20% of the normal matter in the Universe has already been turned into stars.<br /><br />One of the most important goals for cosmologists is to find out where all the normal matter that was produced in the Big Bang is today, 14 billion years later. The new survey reveals that about 20% is in stars, a further 0.1% lies in dust expelled from massive stars (and from which solid structures like the Earth and ourselves are made), and about 0.01% is in super-massive black holes.<br /><br />According to the survey leader, Dr Simon Driver at the University of St Andrews, the remaining material is almost completely in gaseous form lying both within and between the galaxies, and forming a reservoir from which future generations of stars may develop."<br /><br />http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/news/archive/2006/08_aug/