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Supernova shrapnel hits our solar system

CBC Radio | Posted: May 27, 2016 7:53 PM | Last Updated: May 27, 2016

Tiny particles of iron generated by nearby supernovae captured by NASA satellite

Image | Supernova remnant

Caption: A bubble of gas and dust created by a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the kind of explosion that would have created the particles recently detected. (Photo: Gemini South Telescope in Chile; composite by Travis Rector of the University of Alaska Ancho)

Audio | Quirks and Quarks : Supernovae Sharpnel Hits Our Solar System - 2016/05/28 - Pt. 6

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Particles generated in relatively recent, relatively close supernovae have been captured by a NASA satellite. An instrument on NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft, detected charged particles of radioactive iron that must have been produced by stellar explosions that occurred within a a few hundred light years of us, only about two million years ago.
According to Dr. Martin Israel(external link), a professor of Physics from Washington University in St. Louis, at least two supernovae would have been necessary, one to create the iron, and a second to blast it out on a journey towards us.
Dr. Israel suggests it might be possible now to find the remnants of these supernova, in groups of young stars in our galactic neighbourhood.
Related Links
- Paper(external link) in Science
- Washington University in St. Louis release(external link)
- The Verge story(external link)
- Los Angeles Times story(external link)

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