Professor Yong-Zhong Qian of the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Minnesota (USA) and his colleagues found that a supernova collapse of relatively small mass could lead to the formation of the solar system. Scientists came to this conclusion by building a model of the behavior of astronomical objects based on the observation of meteorites. A press release from the University of Minnesota tells about the study.
Qian and his colleagues are studying short-lived particles that were present in the early solar system. Such elements could only come from a supernova explosion. The research materials were reconstructed by scientists from their decay products in meteorites. According to astrophysicists, they are comparable to the remaining bricks and mortar at the end of construction work. It is the meteorites that indicate that short-lived particles from supernova explosions were abundant in the young solar system.
Scientists tested their hypothesis by observing beryllium-10, a short-lived compound that has 4 protons and 6 neutrons in its structure and, therefore, an atomic mass of 10 units. Traces of this substance are often found in meteorites.
In fact, the widespread occurrence of beryllium-10 throughout the solar system is a mystery in itself. Previously, it was believed that some powerful energy, for example, cosmic radiation, could knock protons or neutrons out of the atom to form new nuclei. But this hypothesis has many weaknesses.
The authors of the new study showed that beryllium-10 could have appeared as a result of the splitting of neutrinos by the energy of a supernova explosion of a low mass.
Scientists have received experimental evidence in favor of the hypothesis of the formation of the solar system from a star weighing about 12 solar masses. Thus, about 4.6 billion years ago, in the cloud of gas and dust that formed the basis of the solar system, the balance was disturbed by a supernova explosion. The ensuing gravitational collapse formed a protosun with a surrounding disk, in which planets eventually formed. Indeed, a supernova has enough energy to compress such a cloud of gas. However, scientists have not previously had any conclusive evidence to support this theory.