Found traces of new forms of iron from the Antarctic universe

A group of scientists took 500 kg of snow in Antarctica, melted it and sifted through the remaining particles. Their analysis brings a surprise: Snow contains a significant amount of a form of iron not on Earth.

Other scientists have previously discovered that rare iron isotope is found in the deep ocean crust. Called iron-60 . But iron-60 in the shell is capable of settling on the Earth's surface millions of years ago, contrary to what was found in the new Antarctic snow accumulated over the past two decades.

The Kohnen research station in Antarctica is close to the area with snow samples in which iron-60 is found.

Extraterrestrial objects from dust to meteorites often fall to Earth, but they are usually made of materials like ours, because everything in the solar system, including the Sun, is installed. assembled from the same 'building' billions of years ago. But iron-60 is not among those common materials, so it must come from somewhere outside the solar system.

"A meteorite is a very rare event. The smaller the object size, the more abundant it will be. Dust particles will fall to the Earth's surface more often, but take them from countless other particles around. a difficult task, " said astronomer Avi Loeb of Harvard.

In Antarctica, researchers need to consider possible isotope sources on Earth, such as from nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons testing. The amount of iron-60 could be produced by nuclear reactors, tests and accidents like the 2011 Fukushima disaster and researchers only calculated a very small amount.

Stars release a series of small particles throughout their life, in addition to all the light and heat. But when stars are younger, they often release lighter metals. Iron-60 and its 'cousins' , iron-56 is often the last element that a star can produce while still producing energy, and after the final steps of life, it explodes. . However, only stars that are tens of times more massive than our Sun can produce iron isotopes. However, that means that iron-60 found in Antarctica originates from outside the solar system.

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