Cosmic Shield: How Our Solar System Survived a Supernova

Artist’s impression of the blast wave from a supernova colliding with the molecular cloud filament where the Sun is forming. Credit: NAOJ

Evidence gleaned from isotope ratios within meteorites indicates that a supernova detonation occurred nearby while our Sun and Solar System were still in their formative stages. The resulting blast from that supernova could have potentially destroyed the nascent solar system.

New calculations reveal that a filament of molecular gas, the birth cocoon of our Solar System, played a crucial role in trapping the isotopes discovered in meteorites. Simultaneously, this filament functioned as a shield, safeguarding the nascent Solar System from the destructive forces of the nearby supernova explosion.

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.

Reference: “Insights on the Sun Birth Environment in the Context of Star Cluster Formation in Hub–Filament Systems” by Doris Arzoumanian, Sota Arakawa, Masato I. N. Kobayashi, Kazunari Iwasaki, Kohei Fukuda, Shoji Mori, Yutaka Hirai, Masanobu Kunitomo, M. S. Nanda Kumar and Eiichiro Kokubo, 25 April 2023, The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/acc849

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