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Supernova Shrapnel Found In Meteorite

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the just-missed-the-dinosaurs dept.

coondoggie writes "Talk about finding a needle in a cosmic haystack. Scientists this week said they found microscopic shrapnel in a meteorite of a star they say exploded around the birth of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago."

15 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. The wonders of science... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Remarkable!

    Think of the odds: this meteorite landed 146 years ago in 1864.

    What are the chances that something would be flying around the solar system for nearly 4.5 billion years then hit this wee planet which was Created only 5854 years earlier?

    Most amazing indeed.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:The wonders of science... by TitusC3v5 · · Score: 5, Funny

      TFA was really sparse on details. It didn't even say what kind of super powers it would give us if we came in contact with it.

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      And the masses cried out, "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0!"
    2. Re:The wonders of science... by AffidavitDonda · · Score: 5, Funny

      it will give you Hemolysis and survival of autologous red blood cells salvaged after cemented and uncemented total hip arthroplasty

    3. Re:The wonders of science... by corbettw · · Score: 4, Funny

      What an oddly specific power.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    4. Re:The wonders of science... by c++0xFF · · Score: 5, Funny

      What are the chances that something would be flying around
      the solar system for nearly 4.5 billion years then hit this wee planet which
      was Created only 5854 years earlier?

      Easy: 50%. Either it'll happen or it won't. Pretty good odds, I'd say.

  2. Any files left? by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Were they able to recover any files from Suprnova?

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  3. Supernova Shrapnel??? by snookerhog · · Score: 3, Informative

    no I didn't RTFA and it has been a while since my last astrophysics class, but isn't any atom heavier than Fe technically supernova shrapnel? I always understood that supernovas were the only place that there was enough energy to make these heavier atoms, no?

    1. Re:Supernova Shrapnel??? by radtea · · Score: 5, Informative

      isn't any atom heavier than Fe technically supernova shrapnel?

      Not if you consider "shrapnel" to mean "fragments that are small but not gaseous". The point here is that a nanoscale grain of chromium54 has been found, which suggests it cooled out of the supernova gas cloud and was driven into the meteroite during a collision, so it is a more-or-less pristine piece of supernova condensate that has not been processed further, the way the iron on Earth has, for example.

      That's a fairly interesting find, I'd say.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    2. Re:Supernova Shrapnel??? by ImprovOmega · · Score: 5, Interesting

      isn't any atom heavier than Fe technically supernova shrapnel?

      Iron is kind of a ground-state on the periodic table. Below that, more energy is required to keep an atom together (hence, why fusion works to release energy), above that it takes less energy to have the atom be smaller (hence, why fission *also* releases energy). Iron is the direction everything trends towards. When every last drop of energy has been squeezed out of the universe, the final super-massive black hole of everything will be made up of a giant ball of iron.

  4. Re:Extreme sharpshooting by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is why you should never shoot blindly into the sky. Sure you think it's harmless, but your great-great-great-great(etc)-grandparents won't think it's so funny when they get attacked out of the blue by an alien race from another star system seeking revenge for your errant shot that just happened to kill their beloved leader. Your celebratory gunfire after your local sports team wins some meaningless (from a pan-galactic perspective) competition could end up sparking an interstellar war.

  5. Re:Extreme sharpshooting by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Davy Crocket didn't have > 2 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 tons of bullets either.

  6. Lots of supernova remnants around by GlobalEcho · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Everything on this earth heavier than lead (atomic number 82) comes from supernovae. And most of the other heavy stuff (heavier than iron) comes from them as well.

    So we live among a lot of supernova remnants.

    1. Re:Lots of supernova remnants around by kurokame · · Score: 4, Informative

      Almost right. You can only really make those heavier elements through processes which occur during a supernova, yes. But although lighter elements (say, carbon) can be made during normal stellar lifetimes...how are you going to get it out?

      I found a supernova remnant this morning. It was my foot.

      The article is a little less than clear about the actual research that occurred, as usual. From the sound of it, I suspect that what they found was discrete ejecta - a blob of material which recognizably came from a specific supernova which had not mixed with other material. This is cool since it gives us a sample which we can study in that specific context.

  7. Re:Extreme sharpshooting by Tynin · · Score: 3, Funny

    It is too late, the first shot in the intergalactic war has already been fired!!!

  8. Re:I would consider it to be 'dust'.. by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great. Now Pluto ranks below shrapnel.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."