A Supernova Could Be the End of Earth. However, billions of years ago, a similar death of other stars gave birth to our planet – as revealed by ancient meteorites.
A recent study published in the scientific journal Science has uncovered a special “transport service” provided by ancient meteorites that delivered potassium to Earth.
This potassium signature found in mixtures completely different from modern meteorites was discovered in primitive meteorites that landed on the planet in its early days. But what they brought was not just potassium; they also carried secrets about the formation of the Solar System, including Earth.
Inside an ancient meteorite – (Photo: Nicole Nie).
Dr. Nicole Nie from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), a member of the research team, stated: “The extreme conditions found in the cores of stars allow them to produce elements through nuclear fusion. Each generation of stars sows the raw materials from which the next generations are born, and we can trace the history of this material.”
Billions of years ago, some material was ejected after the death of ancient stars, resulting in supernovae. These pieces of “star remnants” in the form of gas and dust accumulated into molecular clouds. Over 4.5 billion years ago, such a “star remnant” cloud collapsed and coalesced to form the Sun.
The remnants of this process continued to form an accretion disk around the nascent Sun. Eventually, the planets and other objects in the system came together from this disk.
These are not just the 8 planets, dwarf planets, and asteroids we see today, but also large planets and asteroids that were shattered billions of years ago.
“By studying the variations in the isotopic records preserved in meteorites, we can trace the source materials from which they formed and construct a grand timeline of the chemical evolution of the Solar System and our planet,” said co-author Da Wang from Chengdu University of Technology (China), as quoted by SciTech Daily.
According to the “tales” from meteorites, the “recycling” of the universe has created an Earth and a Sun formed from a mixture of dead celestial bodies; later, when the Sun exhausts its energy and explodes – likely taking Earth with it – that deadly cloud of gas and dust will continue to give rise to new worlds.
