The Search for Supernova-Produced Radionuclides in Terrestrial Deep-Sea Archives
Abstract
An enhanced concentration of 60Fe was found in a deep ocean crust in 2004 in a layer corresponding to an age of ~2Myr. The confirmation of this signal in terrestrial archives as supernova-induced and the detection of other supernova-produced radionuclides is of great interest. We have identified two suitable marine sediment cores from the South Australian Basin and estimated the intensity of a possible signal of the supernova-produced radionuclides 26Al, 53Mn, 60Fe, and the pure r-process element 244Pu in these cores. The finding of these radionuclides in a sediment core might allow us to improve the time resolution of the signal and thus to link the signal to a supernova event in the solar vicinity ~2Myr ago. Furthermore, it gives us an insight into nucleosynthesis scenarios in massive stars, condensation into dust grains and transport mechanisms from the supernova shell into the solar system.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
- Pub Date:
- March 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1071/AS11070
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1204.4320
- Bibcode:
- 2012PASA...29..109F
- Keywords:
-
- Nuclear reactions;
- nucleosynthesis;
- abundances;
- ISM: bubbles;
- ISM: supernova remnants;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1071/AS11070