Scientists studying freshly fallen snow in Antarctica have discovered a rare isotope of iron in interstellar dust. This suggests that the dust is recent. Thus, an amazing new discovery could give us important information about the history of supernova explosions in the immediate vicinity. Why?
Today we know that the cosmic dust that continually flies to Earth is tiny fragments of ancient stars and planets that exploded billions of years ago. And Antarctica is a great place to search for such dust, as the mainland is one of the most pristine regions on Earth, making it easy to find isotopes that are difficult to find elsewhere on the planet.
In this case, the isotope the researchers were looking for is the rarest isotope of iron-60. Since this isotope exists only in the interiors of stars, it can get to Earth only in the case of supernova explosions.
Previously, the presence of this isotope was proven in deep-sea sediments and fossilized remains of bacteria at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in 2004, as well as, somewhat later, at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and Atlantic.
In layers dating back to about 2.2 million years ago, scientists then managed to find the remains of chains of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) formed by marine bacteria - the bacteria built it into their structure when radioactive debris fell from the atmosphere on them. On this basis, it could be assumed that a supernova explosion occurred in the vicinity of the Earth in the region between 3.2 and 1.7 million years ago.
And now iron-60 is also found in Antarctica. The current study involved a highly sensitive mass spectrometric chemical analysis performed on 500 kilograms of snow dug from Antarctica and carefully transported to Germany, one of only two places in the world where such analysis can be performed.
The researchers measured the ratios of other isotopes of the elements in their sample to make sure the iron isotope was indeed of interstellar origin. This allowed them to rule out other possible sources of origin, such as cosmic rocks in our solar system, irradiated with cosmic rays, or even nuclear weapons testing.
The full research report is published in Physical Review Letters.
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Editorial comment
Reading every next news about the next scientific discovery, one involuntarily recalls a Roman proverb about “the generation of fathers that were worse than grandfathers, gave birth to you, who were not capable of anything”. The thesis at one time, as it were, was addressed to the local army, but the “academics” long ago intercepted the legionnaires' palm: iron-60, which was attacked by supernovae, is such a blatant idiocy that it is difficult to imagine it even for venerable age officials who are out of their minds.
2 million years by cosmic standards is nothing, so the trajectories of all the nearest “former supernovae” for this period can be traced. But in the immediate vicinity of the solar system there is nothing from which some kind of "cosmic dust" could have flown 2 million years ago. And if not, then the hypothetical supernova was, it turns out, somewhere far, far away. But … the velocities of comets and meteorites by galactic standards are so small that for a flight to Earth from a distant supernova meteorite will not have enough time for the existence of the Galaxy.
To explain this absurdity, astronomers rewarded cosmic dust from supernovae with a fantastic property to fly at a speed close to light. And already in this case, at a distance of 300-500 light years, supernova candidates appear, supplying the Earth with iron-60.
However, there were people who counted this assumption too. The math is very simple. If a supernova explodes at a distance of 300 light-years from the Earth, then at the time of reaching Pluto's orbit, the density of the remnants of its expanding shell will be 100 atoms per cubic meter, so the desired iron-60 will be among these atoms only in a cube with a side of about a kilometer.
And, as soon as this cloud crosses Pluto's orbit (or rather, much earlier), it will encounter such a phenomenon as the solar wind. Its density will be much higher than a cloud from a supernova even on the outskirts of the solar system, and as it approaches the Earth's orbit, this density of protons will increase a million times. That is, everything that flies to the Earth from somewhere is simply blown out by this wind.
But, even if some lucky atom overcomes this barrier, it will be greeted by the Earth's magnetic field and its atmosphere, upon contact with which the iron-60 atom flying at sublight speed will turn into an atom of something else. Its core will simply explode, like in an accelerator.
Thus, there is no iron-60 brought in by the supernova explosion on Earth and never was born. Its only source is a nuclear, thermonuclear, or even some other, more powerful explosion, which at one time created the “Eyes of the Sahara” structure:
Most likely, a similar structure exists somewhere under the ice of Antarctica - another trail of structures destroyed by our conquerors. And these creatures are still here somewhere, but only the mentally deprived survivors of the war do not see them.
Noteworthy is the fact that the snow used for analysis in the laboratory was fresh. That is, the last time such precipitation fell on the Earth many years ago, and now iron-60 is found only at the bottom of the ocean in the fossils of bacteria.
But, since iron-60 began to fall on the head again, it means that somewhere above the head something is now exploding. Moreover, explosions occur such that they turn objects into isotopes and atoms. Therefore, one can think that war has begun again in space and now it is only a matter of time - when battles will begin on Earth.
