Page 4 February 1, 2018
Looking Up
A Stardust Memory:
Meteoritic Stardust Unlocks Timing of Supernova Dust Formation
An electron microscope image of a micron-sized supernova silicon carbide, SiC, stardust grain (lower right) extracted from a primitive
meteorite. Photo: Carnegscience.edu
Based on a Press Release from Carnegie
Institution for Science, Provided
by Bob Eklund
Dust is everywhere—not just in your attic
Finance
or under your bed, but also in outer space.
To astronomers, dust can be a nuisance by
blocking the light of distant stars, or it can
be a tool to study the history of our universe,
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It’s more prevalent than you may think.
Approximately 5 million young people
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Within this problem, though, is an opportunity
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Through a $3 million partnership, Boys
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galaxy, and solar system.
For example, astronomers have been trying
to explain why some recently discovered
distant, but young, galaxies contain massive
amounts of dust. These observations indicate
that Type II supernovae—explosions of stars
more than ten times as massive as the Sun—
produce copious amounts of dust, but how
and when they do so is not well understood.
New work from a team of Carnegie cosmochemists
published by Science Advances
reports analyses of carbon-rich dust grains
extracted from meteorites that show that these
grains formed in the outflows from one or
more Type II supernovae more than two years
after the progenitor stars exploded. This dust
was then blown into space to be eventually
incorporated into new stellar systems, including
in this case, our own.
The researchers—led by postdoctoral
researcher Nan Liu, along with Larry Nittler,
Conel Alexander, and Jianhua Wang
of Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial
Magnetism—came to their conclusion not
by studying supernovae with telescopes.
Rather, they analyzed microscopic silicon
carbide, SiC, dust grains that formed in
supernovae more than 4.6 billion years ago
and were trapped in meteorites as our solar
system formed from the ashes of the galaxy’s
previous generations of stars.
Some meteorites have been known for
decades to contain a record of the original
building blocks of the solar system, including
stardust grains that formed in prior generations
of stars.
“Because these presolar grains are literally
stardust that can be studied in detail in
the laboratory,” explained Nittler, “they are
excellent probes of a range of astrophysical
processes.”
For this study, the team set out to investigate
the timing of supernova dust formation by
measuring isotopes—versions of elements
with the same number of protons but different
numbers of neutrons—in rare presolar silicon
carbide grains with compositions indicating
that they formed in Type II supernovae.
Certain isotopes enable scientists to establish
a time frame for cosmic events because
they are radioactive. In these instances, the
number of neutrons present in the isotope
make it unstable. To gain stability, it releases
energetic particles in a way that alters the
number of protons and neutrons, transmuting
it into a different element.
The Carnegie team focused on a rare isotope
of titanium, titanium-49, because this
isotope is the product of radioactive decay
of vanadium-49 which is produced during
supernova explosions and transmutes into
titanium-49 with a half-life of 330 days.
How much titanium-49 gets incorporated
into a supernova dust grain thus depends on
when the grain forms after the explosion.
Using a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer
to measure the titanium isotopes in supernova
SiC grains with much better precision than
could be accomplished by previous studies,
the team found that the grains must have
formed at least two years after their massive
parent stars exploded.
“This dust-formation process can occur
continuously for years, with the dust
slowly building up over time, which aligns
with astronomer’s observations of varying
amounts of dust surrounding the sites of
stellar explosions,” added lead author Liu. •
application and resume, and ask trusted
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It’s never too early to network. Perhaps
you’ve heard the saying that “the more things
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about your career interests; not only can
they provide feedback on what fields they
see as a potential fit, they can also connect
you with people in those careers for a job
shadow or informational interview.
Volunteer. If you already know what you
want to do, finding a volunteer opportunity
is a great way to get hands-on experience.
Or if you’re not sure yet, volunteering
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Pursue your passions. Discovering what
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