Icy supernovae
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
The effects of supernovae can be detected in Antarctic ice. Ionising radiation released from supernovae can form nitrate ions when it strikes the atmosphere, which are then detectable in ice-cores. The Vela pulsar is the remnant of a supernova which occurred around 11,000 - 12,000 years ago. Researchers from McGill and Dortmund Universities have used data from 20 year-old Antarctic ice core samples to estimate the supernova occurred in a star 15 times the mass of the Sun.
References
Icy supernovae
C. P. Burgess, & K. Zuber, Footprints of the newly discovered Vela supernova in Antarctic ice cores? Astroparticle Physics, vol. 14, no. 1, 2000, 1-6.
