The Search for Supernova-produced Radionuclides in Terrestrial Deep-sea Archives

Abstract

An enhanced concentration of 60Fe was found in a deep ocean's crust in 2004 in a layer corresponding to an age of ~2 Myr. The confirmation of this signal in terrestrial archives as supernova-induced and 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. A finding of these radionuclides in a sediment core might allow to improve the time resolution of the signal and thus to link the signal to a supernova event in the solar vicinity ~2 Myr ago. Furthermore, it gives an insight on nucleosynthesis scenarios in massive stars, the condensation into dust grains and transport mechanisms from the supernova shell into the solar system.

References in corpus (2)

• The nucleosynthesis of Al26 and Fe60 in solar metallicity stars extending in mass from 11 to 120 Msun: the hydrostatic and explosive contributions
• Discovery Prospects for a Supernova Signature of Biogenic Origin

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Astrophysical Shrapnel: Discriminating Among Near-Earth Stellar Explosion Sources of Live Radioactive Isotopes
• The Fractional Ionization of the Warm Neutral Interstellar Medium
• The Origin of the Cluster of Local Interstellar Clouds
• The New Astronomical Frontier of Interstellar Objects
• Impacts of Dust Grains Accelerated by Supernovae on the Moon