Cosmic Birth Theory Gets Support

[zavvy]

<b>Cosmic Birth Theory Gets Support </b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />New meteorite data lends support to a controversial theory that the violent explosion of a star was involved in the creation of the Sun and its planets. <br /><br />The primitive space rock contains signs that a short-lived, radioactive form of the element chlorine may have been present in the early Solar System. <br /><br />A US-Chinese team claims the most likely source of this "isotope" was a supernova - or exploding star. <br /><br />The findings appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. <br /><br />For years, astronomers have believed that the Solar System formed inconspicuously, from a slowly condensing cloud of dust and gas. <br /><br />But this traditional view is now being challenged. <br /><br />The new theory proposes that our star and its planetary system were born in a dense interstellar cloud, or nebula, filled with short-lived, massive stars that exploded with immense energy and an intense release of radiation. <br /><br />Supernovae occur at the end of a star's lifetime, when its nuclear fuel is exhausted and it is no longer supported by the release of nuclear energy. <br /><br />Ancient relic <br /><br />Researchers from Arizona State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied a primitive meteorite from China known as the Ningqiang carbonaceous chondrite. <br /><br />This space relic formed shortly after the creation of the Solar System. The team found a rare isotope of sulphur - sulphur-36 - in the meteorite, which can be produced through the radioactive decay of a form of chlorine called chlorine-36. <br /><br />Because the sulphur isotope was found in an ancient mineral "inclusion" in the meteorite called sodalite, the researchers believe chlorine-36 could have been present in the early Solar System. <br /><br />Chlorine-36 can form in two ways: by a supernova explosion, or by a nebular cloud being