PC Pals Forum
General Discussion => Science & Nature => Topic started by: mistybear on April 19, 2009, 12:40
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Titanium reveals explosive origin of solar system.
LONDON: Putting an apparent end to all the theories on the origin of solar system, astronomers have claimed that it actually emerged from a
"well-blended soup of dust and gas".
A team at natural history museum of Denmark has based its findings on the measurements of the levels of titanium in meteorites from Moon, Mars, and inclusions in meteorites that are thought to be the oldest rocks in the solar system.
Titanium is a good probe for conditions billions of years ago because it does not evaporate easily.
Although the concentration of titanium varied from rock to rock, the astronomers found two isotopes of titanium -- titanium 50 and titanium 46 -- were always found in the same ratio.
"It is quite astonishing since these two different isotopes probably formed in different stellar explosions," team leader Martin Bizzarro told the 'New Scientist'.
According to the astronomers, Titanium 46, which contains 22 protons and 24 neutrons, is created inside the cores of massive collapsing stars while Titanium 50, which contains 22 protons and 28 neutrons, is created when white dwarf stars explode after gorging on a companion star.
LINK (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Titanium-reveals-origin-of-solar-system/articleshow/4412802.cms)
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:stars:
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That's actually much more interesting than it looks at first sight. It means that our solar system is made up from the ashes of two completely different stars. Good find!
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hmm, doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe I'm missing something. Not sure where they get the idea that "these two different isotopes probably formed in different stellar explosions" - I could envisage a situation when both occur - also I'm pretty sure the gas that formed the solar system was bound to have been from a large number of population 2 and earlier stars.