A team of researchers from Germany and Austria found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean traces of one of the most destructive cataclysms in the Universe - a supernova explosion.
Some time ago, one of the members of an international research team discovered unique magnetotactic bacteria in the bottom sediments of the Pacific Ocean. These protozoa have the ability to absorb iron from the environment, which after their death remains in the form of sedimentary deposits. The layers of material left over from these bacteria accumulate over many millions of years and contain various elements that appeared on our planet in the distant past.
By studying the chemical composition of the sediments, scientists discovered an isotope of iron-60 in them. It is one of the rarest elements found on Earth. Its half-life is only 2.5 million years, so all the elements of iron-60, which were formed at the time when the Earth was forming, disappeared long ago. Consequently, the traces of this substance found on the ocean floor are of cosmic origin and came to us from outside. As a result of the research, it was possible to extract samples of the ocean floor rock and find out how much of the iron-60 isotope they contain.
According to the data obtained, the highest concentration of the element was observed about 2.2 million years ago, during the period of mass extinction of the marine fauna. Since iron was contained in hydroxylions, and not in silicates or magnetite, as is typical for meteorites, scientists have suggested that the material that traveled millions of kilometers was the product of a supernova explosion somewhere in the vicinity of the solar system.