(NLDO) - Scientists have found the remains of two "zombie" objects floating in the Earth's oceans.
"We are living in a supernova graveyard," astronomer Brian Fields from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA) affirmed, when talking about the Earth and its only natural satellite called the Moon.
That's the result of a study he led, recently presented at the American Physical Society's 2025 Global Physics Conference.
A kilonova recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope - Photo: NASA
According to Dr. Fields, supernovae can create small rocks that literally fall to Earth. They will accumulate mainly in the deep ocean as well as covering the surface of the Moon.
Supernovae are the ultimate death of stars, usually occurring after the star has collapsed once into a "zombie" state such as white dwarfs and neutron stars.
At some point, or when subjected to some powerful impact, these "zombies" will crumble, releasing into the universe the metals that the star has forged in its core during its life.
Dr. Fields' team began searching for supernova remnants in 2004 and identified evidence of two supernova events three and eight million years ago in samples from the deep ocean and the Moon, respectively.
This evidence is that the radioactive isotopes do not belong to Earth and can only be created by cosmic events.
In 2021, they made a breakthrough when they identified an extremely rare radioactive isotope of plutonium.
This represents a very unusual, violent way to die. It's a kilonova, the supersized version of a supernova.
This event can only happen when two neutron stars - the most extreme type of cosmic zombies - spiral into each other in a catastrophic collision.
Kilonova is also a producer of some of the rarest elements on our planet, such as gold and platinum.
This event is estimated to have occurred about 10 million years ago.
The above evidence helps the research team conclude that the Earth's oceans as well as the Moon may be giant graveyards of supernovae.
In these places, scientists can search for useful evidence to explain the chemical history of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe.
The team believes the Moon would be the best choice for study, because it is geologically simple and it would be easier for spacecraft to reach the satellite to collect samples than to search thousands of meters below the ocean surface.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/hai-thay-ma-vu-tru-phat-no-manh-vo-roi-day-trai-dat-196250321103916091.htm
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