Scientists have found a large cloud of radioactive particles under the ocean's surface, indicating that the planet could be traveling through the remnants of a shattered star.
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The Earth has been in touch with the iron isotope iron-60, which is typically produced in supernovae, for thousands of years. Researchers think this may be due to our passage through an interstellar cloud of dust that dates back millions of years to supernovae.
Iron-60 is a unique element. With a half-life of over 2.5 million years, it takes over 15 million years to totally disintegrate. This suggests that the iron-60 dust could not have lasted so long since Earth's creation, thus it must have originated from outside space. According to astronomers, supernovae may have pelted the Earth with iron debris between 2.5 and 6 million years ago.
However, a new analysis reveals that the iron-60 shower might have occurred within the last few decades. In addition, NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer found the same iron isotope near the Earth's surface, indicating that the planet is traveling through an area of space known as the Local Interstellar Cloud.
Researchers theorize that if the Local Interstellar Cloud is responsible for the existence of iron-60 on the planet's surface, the quantity of the isotope should have increased dramatically when the Earth entered the cloud. Therefore, experts consider that this may have occurred within the last 33,000 years.
The authors of new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted that the relationship between supernovae debris and the Local Interstellar Cloud may have been entirely accidental, suggesting that the cloud is not the supernova's remains.
Reference(s): Peer-Reviewed research article
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