Lunar Samples Told That The Earth Was Once Subjected To Supernova Explosions - Alternative View

Lunar Samples Told That The Earth Was Once Subjected To Supernova Explosions - Alternative View
Lunar Samples Told That The Earth Was Once Subjected To Supernova Explosions - Alternative View

Video: Lunar Samples Told That The Earth Was Once Subjected To Supernova Explosions - Alternative View

Video: Lunar Samples Told That The Earth Was Once Subjected To Supernova Explosions - Alternative View
Video: - Near-Earth Supernova Explosions 2024, March
Anonim

The discovery of radioactive iron in lunar samples collected by NASA astronauts as part of the Apollo mission has led scientists in a new study to suggest that a supernova exploded several million years "near" the Earth. According to the researchers, this finding supports the idea that nearby explosions of stars influenced the development of life on Earth, including human evolution.

The most powerful explosions of giant dying stars are called supernovae. At the same time, the emissions of energy acquire such colossal values that they become noticeable almost in all corners of the Universe, and the brightness of these phenomena is so great that it can easily interrupt the brightness of other stars.

Previous studies have found that supernova explosions produce a huge supply of the moderately radioactive isotope iron-60, which is ejected into outer space. In any other natural process, only one tenth of the volume of the iron-60 isotope is formed, which is produced in a supernova explosion.

Now scientists have discovered unusually high levels of iron-60 in lunar rock that was collected on the Apollo 12, Apollo 15, and Apollo 16 space missions between 1969 and 1972. The presence of an increased concentration of this isotope suggests that it was "sprayed" onto the Earth and other cosmic bodies by the Solar System by the nearest supernova several million years ago.

The half-life of the isotope of iron-60 is about 2.6 million years, which would mean that at least half of any samples of the isotope of iron-60 produced would be destroyed every 2.6 million years or so. This process, in turn, takes a relatively short period of time, if we compare it, for example, with the age of the same solar system, which is plus or minus 4.6 billion years. In other words, scientists conclude that, most likely, this isotope of iron-60 got into lunar samples relatively recently from the nearest supernova.

“We could determine which supernovae these isotopes of iron-60 might belong to,” says study co-author Gunther Korshinek, a physicist at the Technical University of Munich.

The first found evidence of a supernova explosion that affected the Earth, Korshinek and his colleagues discovered back in 1999, when they found a high concentration of the isotope iron-60 in very ancient rocks under water. However, the untouched nature of the lunar rock compared to that of the earth has helped scientists to more accurately calculate the level of isotope emissions from nearby supernovae. These calculations, in turn, can help researchers determine the locations and time periods of the cataclysms that have occurred. By preliminary standards, the explosions of these supernovae could occur anywhere between 1.7 million and 2.6 million years ago, and about 300 light years from Earth.

Previous research also indicates that nearby stellar cataclysms may have affected the development of life on Earth, causing severe climatic changes, and even triggering mass extinctions. According to Korshinek, a supernova located only 300 light years from Earth could significantly increase the level of cosmic radiation on the planet about 2 million years ago, that is, approximately at the time when the human race first began to emerge.

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“There is scientific debate that cosmic radiation could have influenced the formation of clouds in our atmosphere at the global level,” says Korshinek.

“If this is true, then we can also assume a decrease in the overall temperature during this process. Climate change that began several million years ago is seen as the driving force behind our evolution. In general, one can even come to the conclusion that, to one degree or another, all these supernovae could once have influenced the development of human history."

Further studies of this issue and the study of new samples from the lunar surface may help to confirm which nuclear reactions occur in the framework of these catastrophic explosions.

NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK