Solar system may not have formed with a bang, reveals new study

Malaysia Sun (ANI) Friday 25th May, 2007

London, May 25 : Our solar system came into existence with a nudge, rather than a bang, a new research by scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark has revealed.

As part of their study, Martin Bizzarro and his colleagues looked for iron 60, an isotope produced by supernovae in meteorites formed during the first million years in the solar system's history.

Most astrophysicists believe that the solar system formed from a cloud of gas and dust when a nearby supernova exploded, compressing the dust and triggering the birth of the Sun and planets.

But findings revealed there were no iron 60 isotopes in those meteorites.

"To our great surprise, there was no iron-60, ruling out the supernova trigger mechanism," said Bizzarro.

Instead, the team found another isotope, aluminium-26, suggesting an alternative trigger.

Aluminium-26 only forms in extremely massive stars, around 30 times the mass of the Sun, and such stars release a great amount of energy in winds loaded with aluminium-26.

According to Bizzarro, these winds could have buffeted the gas cloud, causing the solar system to form.

Evidence of iron-60 in meteorites, dating to a few million years later, suggested that this massive star exploded at a later date, injecting iron-60 into the youthful solar system, he said.

The team is now looking for evidence of other supernovae in our solar system's vicinity.

"This could have been a very crowded and dynamic neighbourhood," New Scientist quoted Bizzarro as saying.

The findings appear in the journal Science.