Supercomputer model of a low-mass supernova. Credit: Bernhard Mueller, MNRAS 453, 287-310 (2015)
International research is using new computer models and evidence from meteorites to show that a low-mass supernova triggered the formation of our solar system. The research is published in the most recent issue of leading scientific journal Nature Communications.About 4.6 billion years ago, a cloud of gas and dust that eventually formed our solar system was disturbed. The ensuing gravitational collapse formed the proto-Sun with a surrounding disc where the planets were born. A supernova – a star exploding at the end of its life-cycle –would have enough energy to induce the collapse of such a gas cloud.
“Before this model there was only inconclusive evidence to support this theory,” said Prof Al...
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