Our Solar System Was Born in the Bubble Created by the Death of a Giant Star, Say Scientists

I Be Times ^ | December 22, 2017 | Aristos Georgiou

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...in a new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers from the University of Chicago... suggest that our solar system formed billions of years ago in a vast "bubble" of gas and dust around a giant, long-dead star, contradicting the commonly held view which suggests a nearby supernova was responsible...

The dead star in question is what scientists call a Wolf-Rayet star. These are more than 40 to 50 times the size of our own Sun and burn hotter than any other stars, producing vast quantities of material -- much of which is blown off the surface by intense stellar winds.

This process eventually creates a huge 'bubble' of gas and dust with a dense 'shell' around the star...

The new explanation diverges from the supernova hypothesis in order to make sense of the mystery surrounding two compounds -- aluminium-26 and iron-60 -- which occur in strange proportions in the early solar system.

Scientists know that our solar system had a lot more aluminium-26 and much less iron-60 when compared to the rest of the galaxy, which is puzzling because supernovae produce both of these materials.

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Yup. The iron in our very blood came from one.

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Back in the 1980s and 90s they toured under their old name, Quiet Rayet.

[SunkenCiv]

• The Sun: A Great Ball of Iron? [2002]
• Is Iron Causing All the Flares? [2003]
• Scientific maverick's theory on Earth's core up for a test [2004]
• The Surface Of The Sun [2008]
• Planetary System Formation [observed data challenges present theories] [2008]
• Theory of the sun's role in formation of the solar system questioned [2008]
• Do you like Earth's solid surface and life-inclined climate? Thank your lucky (massive) star [2019]