Supernova near Earth biologically proven - THE WORLD

recommend

article by e-mail

supernova near Earth biologically proven An explosion rocked

2.2 million years ago in the immediate vicinity of the earth the universe – just as modern humans developed. A remnant of the supernova has now been found in the deep sea.

recipient e-mail

Your e-mail

Personal Message

An explosion rocked 2.2 million years ago in the immediate vicinity of the earth the universe – just as modern humans developed. A remnant of the supernova has now been found in the deep sea.

div

Munich astrophysicists is, according to the Technical University managed a significant discovery: In a 1.7 million to 3.3 million year old deep-sea core from the Pacific Ocean for the first time, they found a biological evidence for a near-Earth supernova 2.2 million years ago. Around this time, modern man has developed.

The researchers encountered in the analysis of 2.2 million years old fossil, iron-loving bacteria on the radioactive iron isotope Fe-60th If you do, not on earth before, but occurs almost exclusively in noisy communication such stellar explosions.

text in the upper sediment layers of the ocean lives a certain bacterial species that produces tiny magnetite crystals in their cells. Thus, the bacteria orient in the Earth’s magnetic field. The image taken by them including iron comes from the dust of the atmosphere. If the earth should have come in contact with a supernova would have to be found in the fossil remains of bacterial Fe-60, was the starting presumption is that the TU-nuclear physicist Shawn Bishop.

To confirm the previous results on the supernova tracks, Bishop and his team prepare now before the analysis of a second drill core with a tenfold amount of fossil bacteria. They want to find out more precisely how old are the Fe-60 residues – and has thus occurred when the supernova. For the first time researchers have reported data for TU in 2004 SuperNova-iron finds at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

For supernovae the stars spin in a giant explosion much of their mass into space. The radioactive iron isotope 60 Fe is formed almost exclusively in such stellar explosions.

The hypothesis of a near-Earth supernova 2.2 million years ago is represented by several scientists for some time. It is supported by the new results. The explosion is said to have happened in cosmic neighborhood – which corresponds to a distance of not more than 100 light-years. Radiation at that time could have influenced the mutation of living organisms.

video player video player story body

Award

Nobel Prize in Physics for supernova research

Hubble