Our solar system has been moving through space for tens of thousands of years in a giant cluster of gas, dust and plasma called the “Local Interstellar Cloud.” Recent research has shown that the cosmic dust that floats in this cloud and reaches Earth via the solar system's protective shield is protected in Antarctic glaciers.
To determine the source of this dust, scientists examined more than 300 kilograms of ice samples from Antarctica that are 40,000 to 80,000 years old. Ice samples that were melted and subjected to special chemical treatment were analyzed using an advanced mass spectrometry technique that separates isotopes by accelerating the particles. As a result of the analysis, traces of the isotope “iron-60” were found, which only occurs in massive stellar explosions, i.e. supernovae.
When the research team compared the amount of iron-60 they found in fresh snow samples from previous years with these old ice samples, they came to a surprising result. The presence of many fewer isotopes in ancient ice showed that the amount of interstellar dust that reached Earth 40,000 to 80,000 years ago was much lower than today.
This change, which can be considered quite short on the astrophysical time scale, led scientists to look for a closer and local source rather than the large explosions millions of years ago. Researchers say this is evidence that the cosmic cloud surrounding the solar system is directly related to a stellar explosion.
To understand the history of our solar system, which has been moving in this cloud for about 124,000 years and will leave this region in a few thousand years, experts now want to examine older ice sheets from the time before the system entered this cloud.
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