Astrophysical Shrapnel: Discriminating Among Near-Earth Stellar Explosion Sources of Live Radioactive Isotopes

Abstract

We consider the production and deposition on Earth of isotopes with half-lives in the range 10${}^5$ to 10${}^8$ years that might provide signatures of nearby stellar explosions, extending previous analyses of Core-Collapse Supernovae (CCSNe) to include Electron-Capture Supernovae (ECSNe), Super-Asymptotic Giant Branch (SAGBs) stars, Thermonuclear/Type Ia Supernovae (TNSNe), and Kilonovae/Neutron Star Mergers (KNe). We revisit previous estimates of the ${}^{60}$Fe and ${}^{26}$Al signatures, and extend these estimates to include ${}^{244}$Pu and ${}^{53}$Mn. We discuss interpretations of the ${}^{60}$Fe signals in terrestrial and lunar reservoirs in terms of a nearby stellar ejection ~2.2 Myr ago, showing that (i) the ${}^{60}$Fe yield rules out the TNSN and KN interpretations, (ii) the ${}^{60}$Fe signals highly constrain a SAGB interpretation but do not completely them rule out, (iii) are consistent with a CCSN origin, and (iv) are highly compatible with an ECSN interpretation. Future measurements could resolve the radioisotope deposition over time, and we use the Sedov blast wave solution to illustrate possible time-resolved profiles. Measuring such profiles would independently probe the blast properties including distance, and would provide additional constraints the nature of the explosion.

38 pages, 6 figures. Comments welcome

References in corpus (10)

• The nucleosynthesis of Al26 and Fe60 in solar metallicity stars extending in mass from 11 to 120 Msun: the hydrostatic and explosive contributions
• Freshly Formed Dust in the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant as Revealed by the Spitzer Space Telescope
• Short-lived Nuclei in the Early Solar System: Possible AGB Sources
• The search for the origin of the Local Bubble redivivus
• Astrophysical Ionizing Radiation and the Earth: A Brief Review and Census of Intermittent Intense Sources
• Search for supernova-produced 60Fe in a marine sediment
• Radioactive Probes of the Supernova-Contaminated Solar Nebula: Evidence that the Sun was Born in a Cluster
• Discovery Prospects for a Supernova Signature of Biogenic Origin
• The Search for Supernova-produced Radionuclides in Terrestrial Deep-sea Archives
• Superluminous supernovae: No threat from Eta Carinae

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Supernova Triggers for End-Devonian Extinctions
• A discovery of a low-energy excess in cosmic-ray iron: an evidence of the past supernova activity in the Local Bubble
• Terrestrial Effects Of Nearby Supernovae In The Early Pleistocene
• The interface between the outer heliosphere and the inner lism: Morphology of the local interstellar cloud, its hydrogen hole, stromgren shells, and ${}^{60}$Fe accretion
• The TeV Cosmic Ray Bump: a Message from Epsilon Indi or Epsilon Eridani Star?
• r-Process Radioisotopes from Near-Earth Supernovae and Kilonovae
• Heliospheric Compression due to Recent Nearby Supernova Explosions
• Numerical studies on the link between radioisotopic signatures on Earth and the formation of the Local Bubble. II. Advanced modeling of interstellar 26Al, 53Mn, 60Fe, and 244Pu influxes as traces of past supernovae in the solar neighborhood
• Long-Term Prospects: Mitigation of Supernova and Gamma-Ray Burst Threat to Intelligent Beings
• Supernova Dust Evolution Probed by Deep-sea 60Fe Time History
• X-Ray Luminous Supernovae: Threats to Terrestrial Biospheres
• Supernova Ejecta in Ocean Cores Used as Time Constraints for Nearby Stellar Groups
• Exploration of Aspherical Ejecta Properties in Type Ia Supernova: Progenitor Dependence and Applications to Progenitor Classification
• Proposed Lunar Measurements of $r$-Process Radioisotopes to Distinguish Origin of Deep-sea 244Pu
• Formation and evolution of the local interstellar environment: combined constraints from nucleosynthetic and X-ray data
• Did a Kilonova Set Off in Our Galactic Backyard 3.5 Myr ago?
• Nearby Supernova and Cloud Crossing Effects on the Orbits of Small Bodies in the Solar System
• Sharp Rise in Cosmic Ray Irradiation of Organisms on Earth Caused by a Nearby SN Shockwave Passage
• The Link Between the Local Bubble and Radioisotopic Signatures on Earth
• The late Miocene ${}^{10}$Be anomaly and the possibility of a supernova
• The lunar surface as a recorder of astrophysical processes
• Simulations of ${}^{60}$Fe entrained in ejecta from a near-Earth supernova: Effects of observer motion