'Protosun' Shining During Formation of 1st Matter in Solar System

[C1ay]

From chemical fingerprints preserved in primitive meteorites, scientists at UCSD have determined that the collapsing gas cloud that eventually became our sun was glowing brightly during the formation of the first material in the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago.

lefthttp://hypography.com/gallery/files/9/9/8/SolarNebula_thumb.jpg[/img]Their discovery, detailed in a paper that appears in the August 12 issue of Science, provides the first conclusive evidence that this "protosun" played a major role in chemically shaping the solar system by emitting enough ultraviolet energy to catalyze the formation of organic compounds, water and other compounds necessary for the evolution of life on Earth.

 

Scientists have long argued whether the chemical compounds created in the early solar system were produced with the help of the energy of the early sun or were formed by other means.

 

"The basic question was, Was the sun on or was it off?" says Mark H. Thiemens, Dean of UCSD’s Division of Physical Sciences and chemistry professor who headed the research team that conducted the study. "There is nothing in the geological record before 4.55 billion years ago that could answer this."

 

Vinai Rai, a postdoctoral fellow working in Thiemens’ lab, came up with a solution, developing an extremely sensitive measurement that could answer the question. He searched for chemical fingerprints of the high-energy wind that emanated from the protosun and became trapped in the isotopes, or forms, of sulfide found in four primitive groups of meteorites, the oldest remnants of the early solar system. Astronomers believe this wind blew matter from the core of the rotating solar nebula into its pancake-like accretion disk, the region in which meteorites, asteroids and planets later formed.

 

Applying a technique Thiemens developed five years ago to reveal details about the Earth’s early atmosphere from variations in the oxygen and sulfur isotopes embedded in ancient rocks, the UCSD chemists were able to infer from sulfides in the meteorites the intensity of the solar wind and, hence, the intensity of the protosun. They conclude in their paper that the slight excess of one isotope of sulfur, ³³S, in the meteorites indicated the presence of "photochemical reactions in the early solar nebula," meaning that the protosun was shining strongly enough to drive chemical reactions.

 

"This measurement tells us for the first time that the sun was on, that there was enough ultraviolet light to do photochemistry," says Thiemens. "Knowing that this was the case is a huge help in understanding the processes that formed compounds in the early solar system."

 

Astronomers believe the solar nebula began to form about 5 billion years ago when a cloud of interstellar gas and dust was disturbed, possibly by the shock wave of a large exploding star, and collapsed under its own gravity. As the nebula’s spinning pancake-like disk grew thinner and thinner, whirlpools of clumps began to form and grow larger, eventually forming the planets, moons and asteroids. The protosun, meanwhile, continued to contract under its own gravity and grew hotter, developing into a young star. That star, our sun, emanated a hot wind of electrically charged atoms that blew most of the gas and dust that remained from the nebula out of the solar system.

 

Planets, moons and many asteroids have been heated and had their material reprocessed since the formation of the solar nebula. As a result, they have had little to offer scientists seeking clues about the development of the solar nebula into the solar system. However, some primitive meteorites contain material that has remained unchanged since the protosun spewed this material from the center of the solar nebula more than 4.5 billion years ago.

 

Thiemens says the technique his team used to determine that the protosun was glowing brightly also can be applied to estimate when and where various compounds originated in the hot wind spewed out by the protosun.

 

"That will be the next goal," he says. "We can look mineral by mineral and perhaps say here’s what happened step by step."

 

The UCSD team’s study was financed by a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

 

Source: UCSD

[alxian]

if dormant life on a planet or remains of an obliterated world could survive through hibernation the long period between the explosion of the old star and formation of new planets, could the UV light and waters of a crisp new world revive those creatures?, surely it could.

 

just as the cycling of the star introduces heavier metals perhaps life isn't destroyed everytime? and thus life itself could be as primordial as the metals and minerals that life as we know it needs to exist.. as we know it.

[Southtown]

Assumption: meteorites are non-accreted remnants of the galaxies initial ingredients.

 

Or has this been proven?

[Buffy]

Assumption: meteorites are non-accreted remnants of the galaxies initial ingredients.

 

Or has this been proven?

On the contrary, meteorites are mostly mostly iron, and thus are remnants of supernovas. The only "non-accreted remnants of the galaxy's initial ingredients are hydrogen and some helium, all heavier elements are created within stars and expelled by their explosions....

 

alxian's theory is certainly possible and is the core of panspermia theories.

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[alxian]

On the contrary, meteorites are mostly mostly iron, and thus are remnants of supernovas. The only "non-accreted remnants of the galaxy's initial ingredients are hydrogen and some helium, all heavier elements are created within stars and expelled by their explosions....

 

alxian's theory is certainly possible and is the core of panspermia theories.

 

Cheers,

Buffy

 

 

which you are saying either has the good stuff (the life fertilizer, and new heavy metals) being ejected by the star into the interstellar ether or the stellar crocpot actually cooks up quite a bit of material with each cycle, meaning even if sol is only the second cycle that the first star in our system created quite a bit of raw material. if we are around after sol we could see how much raw material sol spits out for the next cycle.

 

but i mean given our systems large amount of inner planets (compared to what ZERO such multiplanetary systems with tiny planets like merc venus terra and mars, we've so far detected only large jupiter sized planets, maybe in time we'll find an analogue to or own system but thus far its looking like our dust cloud was very big before sol formed. if thats the case and unless heavy metals can be formed by planetary accretion, it doesn't explain all the heavy metals and radioactive materials that must have existed before our solar system formed. i'd like to think several cycles must have passed at least to create all the raw materials or our solar system. if thast the case life could have formed several cycles ago and been revived once the comets seeded the new planets with the life forms kept dormant from the last cycle.

 

only if the star was small and didn't actually supernova but just farted out of existance could life remain within the same stellar cloud while another star formed. for span spermia then life like spore on the wind would require billenia to cross the either perhaps never reaching another star system, but even in that long time life would remain dormant. how much of that interstellar stuff then might contain dormant life? considering how empty the milkyway seems to be it doesn't seem like interstellar space seeds many start systems..

 

i guess i'd need more information on the dynamics of a stars life cycle. like if its gravity grows with its size drawing those bodies in, baking them sterile of life before expelling them, and if they actually leave the system altogether or become wide arc comets coming back into the system very late in the life of the new star (nibiru perhaps? if you are a fan of sumerian mythos) all those rocks in the kuiper belt can't all be inert frozen gas balls, some must be remnants from before our sol formed.

[Southtown]

only if the star was small and didn't actually supernova but just farted out of existance...

HAHAHA!

[Buffy]

...the stellar crocpot actually cooks up quite a bit of material with each cycle, meaning even if sol is only the second cycle that the first star in our system created quite a bit of raw material. if we are around after sol we could see how much raw material sol spits out for the next cycle.

Uh, there's no reason to think that there was a "first cycle" at all, or that *all* the material came from this first cycle. You're assuming that all stars have similar lifespans to our Sun, when in fact the massive stars that go supernova come and go in the blink of a cosmological eye. We're probably made from stuff from many, many "cycles" not just of the material local to us but spewed out from many many different directions!

but i mean given our systems large amount of inner planets (compared to what ZERO such multiplanetary systems with tiny planets like merc venus terra and mars, we've so far detected only large jupiter sized planets, maybe in time we'll find an analogue to or own system but thus far its looking like our dust cloud was very big before sol formed. ..

the only reason that we have not seen rocky inner planets is that at this point its provable that we don't even have the resolution to detect them! You can't therefore make any assumptions that the existence of this material is rare at all!

if thats the case and unless heavy metals can be formed by planetary accretion, it doesn't explain all the heavy metals and radioactive materials that must have existed before our solar system formed.

So, these statements don't make sense because your assumptions are wrong. Moreover, its provable that without temperatures at least approaching stellar levels that you can't fuse neuclei into higher elements, so this pretty much assures that you need stars to make stuff for rocky planets...

only if the star was small and didn't actually supernova but just farted out of existance could life remain within the same stellar cloud while another star formed. for span spermia then life like spore on the wind would require billenia to cross the either perhaps never reaching another star system...

Here you're leaving out the fact that collisions between stellar systems are in fact quite common, which causes lots of mixing between systems (especially as you get closer to the galaxy's core) even if the star is small and "farts out"....

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[alxian]

are there any estimates as to where the materials in our own solar system come from?

 

i mean its certain that the amount of heavy metals in our star system alone in immense, and even though our star may be longer lived than some could all the matter have been generated in our region of the orion arm or is it possible that some of the metals in our star systems/own bodies predate even our galaxy?

 

the question bein if our galaxy, a very old structure was formed from very basic materials (accounting for its entire current mass) is it possible for all the metals and other complex materials we take for granted were created in our galaxy from thousands of stellar life cycles, or could some of the material be primordial (for those who believe that the big bang started it all rather than the universe is an infinite system having existed forever with matter cycling through many stages in many system perhaps even larger than our "known" space (that which is visible to us).

 

also that our current galaxy could have formed out of several smaller galaxies merging together and an equilibrium achieved of a very very long time. collissions would more than have numerous star systems merging or even having the stars collide? that be cool to witness.