The world’s most powerful supercomputer and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have successfully simulated how carbon-12—the building block of humans, all living beings, and even extraterrestrials—is created from the most extreme environments in the universe.
This research was led by Professor of Astrophysics James Vary from Iowa State University (USA) and Professor Takaharu Otsuka from the University of Tokyo, RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, and the Advanced Science Research Center of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
According to Sci-Tech Daily, the research results indicate that the creation of carbon-12 is not easy, even in the most explosive events in the universe.
Supernova, which could very well be the “forge” of carbon-12 – the “seed” of life. (Photo: NASA)
The extreme heat and pressure in the cores of stars or during collisions and explosions of “cosmic monsters”—such as white dwarfs and neutron stars—lead to the formation of carbon nuclei in an excited, unstable state, with three loosely bound clusters. Each cluster contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons.
A small fraction of these unstable nuclei can emit a bit of additional energy in the form of gamma rays and transform into a stable seed of life—carbon-12.
Carbon-12 is a crucial isotope for forming primordial organic molecules, the “building blocks of life,” which often undergo a mysterious phase of travel through interstellar and interplanetary space before landing on a young planet and, if fortunate, gradually evolving into true life.
This is what the publication in Nature Communications describes, based on simulations of the mysterious process of carbon-12 formation using alpha particles—helium-4 atoms, containing 2 protons and 2 neutrons, which can cluster together to form much heavier atoms.
The simulations were conducted on the Fugaku supercomputer at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan. Statistical techniques based on “artificial brains” powered by AI were also developed to assist the supercomputer.
Neutron star collisions and supernova explosions from white dwarfs are some of the most catastrophic events in the universe, capable of causing extinction for nearby life-bearing planets. Earth itself has experienced extinction events related to nearby supernovae, as revealed in ancient data or hidden within the growth rings of ancient trees.
However, this research once again affirms the hypothesis that these ferocious “cosmic monsters” may also bring forth life or rebirth.
