Molecular filament shielded young solar system from supernova

Date:
June 22, 2023
Source:
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Summary:
Isotope ratios found in meteorites suggest that a supernova exploded
nearby while the Sun and Solar System were still forming. But
the blast wave from a supernova that close could have potentially
destroyed the nascent Solar System. New calculations shows that a
filament of molecular gas, which is the birth cocoon of the Solar
System, aided the capture of the isotopes found in the meteorites,
while acting as a buffer protecting the young Solar System from
the nearby supernova blast.


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==========================================================================
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Isotope ratios found in meteorites suggest that a supernova exploded
nearby while the Sun and Solar System were still forming. But the blast
wave from a supernova that close could have potentially destroyed the
nascent Solar System.

New calculations shows that a filament of molecular gas, which is the
birth cocoon of the Solar System, aided the capture of the isotopes
found in the meteorites, while acting as a buffer protecting the young
Solar System from the nearby supernova blast.

Primitive meteorites preserve information about the conditions at
the birth of the Sun and planets. The meteorite components show an inhomogeneous concentration of a radioactive isotope of aluminum. This variation suggests that an additional amount of the radioactive aluminum
was introduced shortly after the Solar System started forming. A nearby supernova explosion is the best candidate for this injection of new
radioactive isotopes. But a supernova that was close enough to deliver
the amount of isotopes seen in meteorites would have also created a
blast wave strong enough to rip the nascent Solar System apart.

A team led by Doris Arzoumanian at the National Astronomical Observatory
of Japan proposed a new explanation of how the Solar System acquired the
amount of isotopes measured in meteorites while surviving the supernova
shock. Stars form in large groups called clusters inside giant clouds
of molecular gas. These molecular clouds are filamentary. Small stars
like the Sun usually form along the filaments and large stars, which
will explode in a supernova, usually form at the hubs where multiple
filaments cross.

Assuming that the Sun formed along a dense molecular gas filament, and
a supernova exploded at a nearby filament hub, the team's calculation
showed that it would take at least 300,000 years for the blast wave
to break up the dense filament around the forming Solar System. The
components of meteorites enriched in radioactive isotopes formed in approximately the first 100,000 years of Solar System formation inside
the dense filament. The parent filament may have acted as a buffer to
protect the young Sun and helped catch the radioactive isotopes from the supernova blast wave and channel them into the still forming Solar System.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Space_&_Time
# Sun # Solar_System # Solar_Flare # Astronomy # Galaxies
# Nebulae # Stars # Northern_Lights
* RELATED_TERMS
o Comet o Jupiter o History_of_Earth o Sun o Planet o Supernova
o Saturn o Eris_(dwarf_planet)

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
National_Institutes_of_Natural_Sciences. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Doris Arzoumanian, Sota Arakawa, Masato I. N. Kobayashi, Kazunari
Iwasaki, Kohei Fukuda, Shoji Mori, Yutaka Hirai, Masanobu Kunitomo,
M. S.

Nanda Kumar, Eiichiro Kokubo. Insights on the Sun Birth
Environment in the Context of Star Cluster Formation in Hub-Filament
Systems. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2023; 947 (2): L29 DOI:
10.3847/2041-8213/ acc849 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230622120910.htm

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