The Solar System moves through the Local Interstellar Cloud.
Image credit: NASA / Adler / University of Chicago / Wesleyan.
Posted on 08/25/2020 10:50:41 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Radioactive elements synthesized in massive stars are ejected into space via stellar winds and supernova explosions.
Our Solar System moves through the interstellar medium and collects these extrasolar products.
One such product is iron-60. Because it is not naturally produced on Earth, the presence of this radioactive isotope is a sensitive indicator of supernova explosions within the last few million years.
Australian National University’s Dr. Anton Wallner and colleagues previously found traces of iron-60 at about 2.6 million years ago, and possibly another at around 6 million years ago, suggesting our planet had traveled through fallout clouds from nearby supernovae.
They also found the rare isotope in samples of lunar soil returned to Earth by the Apollo 12, 15 and 16 missions, and in samples of snow from Antarctica.
“For the last few thousand years, the Solar System has been moving through a denser cloud of gas and dust, known as the Local Interstellar Cloud, whose origins are unclear,” they said.
The Solar System moves through the Local Interstellar Cloud.
Image credit: NASA / Adler / University of Chicago / Wesleyan.
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
The rest of the Charlemagne Event keyword, chrono:
This is good news! My doctor recently said I was -60 iron deficient but couldn’t write a prescription because none was available.
I thought I felt a strange breeze....
Big whoop! All you had to do was look out the window with your eyes closed to know that...
Ahh! I love the smell of Super Nova in the morning!
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