The first-ever discovery of an extraterrestrial radioactive isotope on Earth has scientists rethinking the origins of the elements on our planet. The tiny traces of plutonium-244 (Pu-244) were found in ocean crust alongside radioactive iron-60. The two isotopes are evidence of violent cosmic events in the vicinity of Earth millions of years ago.
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
“It must have been a supernova, not so near as to kill us but not too far to be diluted in space,” said physicist Dominik Koll, at Australian National University, about the new discovery that our planet probably picked up stray particles not naturally produced on Earth while traveling through the Local Interstellar Cloud (image above), also known as the Local Fluff, for somewhere between 40,000 and 150,000 years and will probably not emerge for another 20,000 years.
The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
The Milky Way Is Like an Ecosystem: The Center Is Where the Action Is
Did the Big Bang Make Cracks in Spacetime to What Would Intelligent Aliens Mean? (The Galaxy Report)
How Earth Avoided a Mars-like Fate to Why is There No Planet B? (Planet Earth Report)
“Life is Electric” –NASA’s ENIGMA Explores Origins of Life on Earth & Beyond
