
A new study posits that our solar system may have been formed in a massive bubble created by a huge star eons ago.
A groundbreaking new discovery could help scientists crack the mystery of how our solar system came to be, and consequently our eventual existence. Scientists at the University of Chicago have put forward a new theory that indicates our solar system was formed within a huge space bubble produced by a star as much as 50 times larger than our sun.
Such stars, called Wolf-Rayet stars, are the hottes tin the universe and may have created a bubble around the star that allowed dust and gas to be trapped, so that even more stars could form, according to the findings published in the Astrophysical Journal. This giant star probably collapsed and disappeared, either by forming a black hole or exploding in a supernova.
Our solar system’s bubble eventually collapsed, which led to the create of the solar system as we know today. While more research will need to be done to back up this theory, it’s an intriguing new possibility.
“The idea is that aluminum-26 flung from the Wolf-Rayet star is carried outwards on grains of dust formed around the star. These grains have enough momentum to punch through one side of the shell, where they are mostly destroyed–trapping the aluminum inside the shell,” said coauthor Vikram Dwarkadas, a research associate professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.
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