Supernova Traces on Earth

Speaker

Jenny Feige
Technical University of Berlin (Germany)

Abstract

Stars with masses larger than 8 M_☉ end their life in a supernova (SN) explosion. The nuclides, which are created in the late burning phases of such stars and also during the explosion are ejected and entrained in the SN-shell. This material expands rapidly into the surrounding interstellar medium. Such events happened in the recent history in our solar neighborhood and led to the formation of the Local Bubble, characterized as a hot void embedding our solar system. Minute traces of close-by SN ejecta were found in deep-sea records from all major oceans on Earth. Their presence can help to pin down the locations and explosion times of SNe that created the Local Bubble. I will report on the search for SN-ejected long-lived radionuclides in deep-sea sediment samples and show results of simulations that produce the Local Bubble and reproduce the distribution of Supernova traces on Earth.

Date and Time

April 1 2021
4pm KST (= 7am UTC)

Recording

Link to the recording on Youtube