More evidence found suggesting supernovae occurred near the solar system during its formation
Scientists have now detected more evidence that suggests a supernovae occurred very close to our solar system during its early period of formation.
Astronomers have for decades found such evidence inside meteorites. Small spherical inclusions called chondrules are thought by some to have formed when the heat of a nearby supernova caused melting. The new study finds more evidence in isotopes also found in primitive meteorites dubbed short-lived radionuclides (SLRs).
While SLRs probably existed in the part of the filament where the Sun and Solar System formed, the meteorite samples contained too much of a particular aluminum isotope for the interstellar medium to have been the Solar System’s only SLR source. Cosmic rays, which can convert stable isotopes to radioactive ones, had a better chance of explaining the number of isotopes found in the meteorites. However, it would have taken too long for this process to produce the levels of SLRs found in the early Solar System.
It is most likely that such high SLR levels could have come from either very intense stellar winds, which would have occurred during massive star formation, or from what was left after one of the massive stars went supernova.
You can read the published paper here.
If true, this data adds weight to the possibility that our solar system is somewhat unique, which in turn suggests finding just another like it — with life — might be difficult.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Scientists have now detected more evidence that suggests a supernovae occurred very close to our solar system during its early period of formation.
Astronomers have for decades found such evidence inside meteorites. Small spherical inclusions called chondrules are thought by some to have formed when the heat of a nearby supernova caused melting. The new study finds more evidence in isotopes also found in primitive meteorites dubbed short-lived radionuclides (SLRs).
While SLRs probably existed in the part of the filament where the Sun and Solar System formed, the meteorite samples contained too much of a particular aluminum isotope for the interstellar medium to have been the Solar System’s only SLR source. Cosmic rays, which can convert stable isotopes to radioactive ones, had a better chance of explaining the number of isotopes found in the meteorites. However, it would have taken too long for this process to produce the levels of SLRs found in the early Solar System.
It is most likely that such high SLR levels could have come from either very intense stellar winds, which would have occurred during massive star formation, or from what was left after one of the massive stars went supernova.
You can read the published paper here.
If true, this data adds weight to the possibility that our solar system is somewhat unique, which in turn suggests finding just another like it — with life — might be difficult.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Let there be light…
Perhaps the presence of supernovae can be added as a variable to the Drake Equation?
Just because something is unusual in one way doesn’t mean it’s related to another unusual feature of that thing. I am reminded of the folks who noticed that it was pretty weird that both Sun and Moon appear the same size from Earth’s surface, and wanted to claim that was a necessary thing for life.
We know that’s false, because a billion plus years ago when life appeared on the planet Sol was cooler and smaller, while Luna was closer. That is, when life arose the Moon appeared much larger than the Sun. That doesn’t mean that a relatively big moon isn’t part of the answer (the most common suggestion is that such a moon saves the planet some meteor hits.)
Point is, without some chain of causation from ‘more cosmic rays than expected during solar system formation’ to ‘existence of life’ it seems little more than trivia, Fermi Paradox wise.