The origin of silicon, a common element in sand, concrete and glass, may be related to supernovae, astronomers speculate. They have long wondered how cosmic dust composed of, say, quartz, graphite or iron formed, but only recently discovered a small number of supernova remnants covered in stardust.
Astronomers have long argued that the phrase “We are stardust” is more than just a poetic phrase. The new data adds another stanza to this wonderful space-themed poem.
Silicon-based dust - a common element in Earth's inner crust, sandy beaches, glass and even cell phones - has been discovered among the remnants of two supernovae in the Milky Way galaxy. These observations, presented last October in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, provide the first evidence that silicon was formed from star explosions.
"This is a very important finding, indicating that an element so abundant on Earth appears to have come from the most powerful explosion in the universe," said one of the authors of this study, Haley Gomez, an astronomer at Cardiff University in Wales. "It's an origin story."
Astronomers have long pondered the question of how cosmic dust, consisting of, say, quartz, graphite or iron, was formed. Initially, they believed that these elements formed at a time when the stars were aging, and powerful winds were created, the gases of which may have condensed into solid dust particles, similar to how snowflakes occur in a cold atmosphere. However, experts then discovered dust in such distant galaxies, which, apparently, formed after the Big Bang - long before the appearance of stars like the Sun, and they were confident that another source must have existed.
Scientists suspected that stardust may have formed in supernova explosions shortly after the creation of the universe, but astronomers only recently discovered a small amount of stardust-covered supernova remnants. And Mikako Matsuura, also an astronomer from Cardiff who was not involved in the study, says she is looking forward to more evidence.
If silicon is also found in early supernova remnants, then the first planets may look like our own pale blue dot. “In fact, it's interesting that planets like Earth can be created so quickly in terms of the existence of the universe. This will take less than 13 billion years,”Gomez said.
Shannon Hall
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