Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Mar 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000psrd.repte..37t&link_type=abstract
Planetary Science Research Discoveries
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Isotopes, Solar Nebula, Meteorites, Planetary Data, Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Meteorites contain clear evidence that isotopes with short half lives (as short as 100,000 years) were present in the cloud of gas and dust (the called solar nebula) from which the Sun and planets formed. Supernovae, the powerful explosions of spent stars, produce elements, including short-lived radioactive isotopes. Given the short lifetimes, these elements must have been added immediately before solids formed in the Solar System, and it is possible that a supernova triggered the collapse of the vast interstellar cloud in which the Solar System formed. However, there is some evidence that two isotopes, aluminum-26 and manganese-53, were not distributed uniformly in the solar nebula. If correct, does this mean that the supernova debris was not mixed thoroughly into the collapsing interstellar cloud? This possibility was tested by Robert H. Nichols, Frank Podosek, and Cristine Jennings (Washington University in St. Louis) and Brad Meyer (Clemson University). They evaluated how thoroughly supernova products were mixed into the solar nebula by searching for the effects on the isotopic make up of other elements. They conclude that the explosive products of a supernova would have been mixed uniformly into the nebula. Thus, either the evidence of heterogeneous distribution of short-lived isotopes is incorrect, or some isotopes were not formed in a supernova, but came from somewhere else. This research project is one of many that link studies of meteorites, astronomical observations, and astrophysical calculations.
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