Researchers Find Traces Of Supernova Remnant In Antarctic Snow
Researchers recently came across traces of highly radioactive iron while studying the fallen snow in Antarctica. According to the researchers, these traces are most likely remnants of a supernova.
Scientists have long believed that dust from space regularly rains down on Earth. These usually come from the debris produced by the violent formations of planets and new stars.
On Earth, Antarctica is considered as one of the few regions where cosmic dust can be easily found due to its remote and unspoiled status.
Recently, a team of researchers combing through the fresh snow in Antarctica came across traces of iron-60, which is a variant of iron that’s highly radioactive. According to previous studies on fossilized remains of bacteria as well as deep-sea sediment, iron-60 came to Earth following a supernova explosion. Studies on these traces revealed that they may have arrived at Earth around 1.7 to 3.2 million years ago.
Unlike in the previous studies, the recent discovery marks the first time that iron-60 has been detected in Antarctic snow. For the researchers, this strongly indicates that the supernova debris may have entered Earth within the last two decades.
“I was personally surprised, because it was only a hypothesis that there might be iron-60 and it was even more uncertain that the signal is strong enough to be detected,” Dominik Koll, a nuclear physicist from the Australian National University told Science Alert.
“It was a very joyful moment when I saw the first iron-60 count appear in the data, because that means that our overall astrophysical picture might not be too wrong,” he added.
The researchers hypothesized that the Solar System travels through a dense interstellar cloud filled with dust. The bulk of this interstellar dust is composed of the debris that came from a supernova.
Since the traces of iron-60 that they discovered came to Earth within the last 20 years, the researchers concluded that the Solar System is currently near or within the interstellar cloud.
According to the researchers, their findings could provide a brief background regarding the life and death of stars in the galaxy.
The findings of the researchers were presented in a new study published in Physical Review Letters.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.