Washington, Jun 16 : Planetary scientists have claimed that the interstellar stuff which became incorporated into the planets and life on Earth has younger cosmic roots than theories predict.
An international team, led by Chicago University, has based its findings on an analysis of 22 interstellar grains from the Murchison meteorite.
Dying sun-like stars flung the Murchison grains into space more than 4.5 billion years ago, before the birth of the solar system. Scientists know the grains formed outside the solar system because of their exotic composition.
"The concentration of neon, produced during cosmic-ray irradiation, allows us to determine the time a grain has spent in interstellar space," team leader Philipp Heck said.
In fact, the scientists determined that 17 of grains spent somewhere between three million and 200 million years in interstellar space, far less than the theoretical estimates of approximately 500 million years. However only three grains met interstellar duration expectations. Ze
12:24 AM
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