Time capsule According to Nola Taylor Redd, from Space.com, astrophysicists examined the composition of meteorites from the time when the Solar System was forming in search of isotopes – variants of the same chemical element in which the number of neutrons in their atoms differ each other – to give them clues to what probably happened. Isotopes are formed naturally, but also through external processes that cause changes in the nucleus of atoms. Thus, heavy elements – such as plutonium, gold and platinum, for example – form in the Universe when atoms are hit by neutrons and, when the collision between these particles occurs, neutrons (which have a neutral charge) can occur. emit electrons (with a negative charge), which causes them to emit an electron and become a proton, changing the original atom. This above process only happens when powerful explosions occur in the Universe, including supernovae and stellar fusions, and that is why astrophysicists went to investigate the composition of meteorites from the early Solar System. These space rocks basically function as time capsules, as they contain elements and evidence of what happened in the past by the cosmos – and it is the different isotopes that help to retell the story. Stellar crash The scientists calculated the amount of radioactive isotopes present in meteorites and compared their results with the amount and variety of isotopes that would be produced as a result of a supernova and the collision of a pair of neutron stars. Astrophysicists concluded that, in order for the detected elements to form, it would have been necessary to have a stellar shock – and the isotopes “counted” that this event would have occurred only 100 million years before the Solar System formed. The information present in meteorites also allowed astrophysicists to calculate the distance over which the crash occurred: a thousand light years from our corner in the cosmos. And, according to Nola, the researchers explained that it may seem that a collision taking place at such an absurd distance would have little impact here for us, but if a similar event recurs, it would illuminate the entire night sky here on Earth. The only thing that astrophysicists were unable to determine was the exact location where the collision between the stars took place, since in the last 4.5 billion years – which is the age of the Solar System -, the Sun has not stood still. That’s because, in addition to orbiting around the center of the Milky Way, the galaxy itself is moving through the Universe, but scientists still hope to find other stars that formed from the same collision, as well as remnants of the encounter to define the point where it happened.
