Supernova Confetti in Meteorites

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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Spinel, Chromium, Isotope, Supernova, Nanoparticles, Presolar, Pre-Solar, Cr, Orgueil, Murchison, Formation, Solar System

Scientific paper

Chromium has four isotopes, with atomic weights of 50, 52, 53, and 54. In terrestrial rocks the isotopes behave in predictable ways, with their variations in relative abundance governed by geochemical processes. In contrast, some meteorites have deviant abundances of the heaviest (hence the one with the most neutrons) Cr isotope, chromium-54. These anomalies in isotopic composition are almost certainly caused by nuclear reactions in stars that existed before our Sun was formed. However, the mineralogical carrier of the special chromium-54 was not known until Nicolas Dauphas (University of Chicago) and eight colleagues there and at the California Institute of Technology, the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Universite de Lille (France) made detailed analyses of chemical and physical separates from the Orgueil and Murchison carbonaceous chondrites. They found that the carrier of the isotopically-anomalous Cr is spinel, Cr-bearing oxide grains generally smaller than 100 nanometers. Only supernovae can produce the chromium-54 anomalies, although which specific type of supernova is not clear. An intriguing possibility is that the chromium-54-rich nano-oxide particles were produced in the same supernova that made two other short-lived isotopes, iron-60 and aluminum-26, which also existed in the Solar System when it formed. This suggests that formation of the Solar System was triggered by a supernova explosion.

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