Carbon From Outer Space Older Than Our Sun

Roland Piquepaille writes "While looking at interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) found in the Earth's stratosphere, researchers from the Washington University in St. Louis have found carbon older than the Solar System. They identified the organic material by its carbon isotopic composition, different from the one of carbon found on Earth. "Our findings are proof that there is presolar organic material coming into the Solar System yet today," said Christine Floss, the leading scientist. "This material has been preserved for more than 4.5 billion years, which is the age of the Solar System. It's amazing that it has survived for so long." This overview contains more details and references. It also contains pictures including the one of a sample's isotopic structure at a sub-micrometer scale."

Comments

isotopic ratios

[gumbi west]

here is the isotopic ratio here on earth.

• 98.90 % C-12
• 1.10 % C-13

Re:About time

[xilmaril]

and for those not familier with the subject (ie most people)

Svante Arrhenius theorized that bacterial spores propelled through space by light pressure were the seeds of life on Earth. British astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe rekindled interest in panspermia. They also proposed that comets, which are largely made of water-ice, carry bacterial life across galaxies and protect it from radiation damage along the way. Not necessarily a view I subscribe to, but an interesting one nevertheless.

by Theorellior, of Everything2.com

The Cosmic Recycling Center

[Rob Riggs]

They are called stars: fusion, E=mc^2, supernovae. Behold the power of the atom.

Oh, and those theoretical apparitions called black holes -- the great Insinkerators in the sky.

Re:Well.

[John Hasler]

The Solar System formed out of a single gas and dust cloud resulting from one or more supernovas. This cloud had a characteristic isotopic composition. The carbon these researchers have found has a different composition and so must have originated in a different dust cloud.