Supernova From 2,000 Light Years Away Pummels Radioactive Debris To Earth

A nearby supernova is bombarding the earth with iron isotopes that NASA estimated are iron-60 coming from a star cluster around 2,000 light years away. The ashes of the nearby supernova are helping scientists reconstruct the event, although there have already been evidence of an ancient Arabic astronomer observing the event as it happened around 1,000 years ago.

This is especially interesting as very few supernovae have been directly observed, and astronomers actually have to search for their glowing remnants to study them. The Daily Mail noted that with the help of computerized telescopes capable of searching the skies for the slightest changes coming from distant galaxies, it has been easier to spot supernovae. However, they recently realized that they could trace the history of the supernovae by looking for signs on Earth.

For instance, the radioactive iron-60 isotopes, which have been showering the earth lately, are proven to not come from our own planet, yet they have been found in sediment buried just beneath the ocean floor. A group of researchers even found that some supernova may still be slinging these elements towards Earth - while using data from the Advance Composition Explorer, they were able to confirm that there have been at least 14 cosmic ray events with the iron-60 fingerprints. These materials have a half-life of around 2.5 million years, which is about the same amount of time that these materials can break down into simpler atoms.

An astrophysicist from Washington University, Dr.Martin Israel shared with Gizmodo that the iron-60 can still be detected here on earth means that the explosion have not been too far away. The researchers also agreed that the cosmic rays may have originated from a cluster of stars only 2,022 light years away of the sun. All these observations are also said to be consistent with other observations from the ancient Arabic astronomer in 1006 AD.