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Distant Stars Help Answer Solar System Question
By SPACE.com Staff
posted: 07:00 am ET
07 September 2001
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EMBARGOED for 10 aSubstances in our solar system thought to have been sprinkled here after the explosion of some other star might instead have been created by the Sun when it was young, according to a new study of other young stars. The substances, called isotopes, are special forms of atomic nuclei including aluminum-26 and calcium-5. They have been found only in ancient meteorites and dated to the early days of our solar system, more than 4 billion years ago. No previously known process in a Sun-like star could account for them, so researchers have long assumed that an exploding star, called a supernova, seeded the early solar system with the isotopes. The new study, which relied on data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, focused on stars in a dense cluster known as the Orion Nebula. The stars are nearly identical to our Sun but younger. Nearly all the stars studied exhibited X-ray flares at unexpectedly high levels -- high enough to forge the isotopes in question, researchers say. "If the young stars in Orion can do it, then our Sun should have been able to do it too," said Eric Feigelson, a Penn State astronomer who led the study. The work is expected to help researchers refine models of solar system formation. Click here for more news and information about the Sun and deep space objects.
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