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France Media Agency
Nov 18, 2018 11:48 am IST
The next time you look out the window in search of inspiration, do not forget that the material you are looking at has been wrought in the heart of an old, exploding star.
An international team of scientists announced Friday that it has detected silica – the main component of glass – in the remnants of two distant supernovae billions of light-years away from Earth.
The researchers used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to analyze the light emitted by the mega-cluster collapsing and obtain a "fingerprint" of silica based on the specific wavelength of the light that the material is known to emit.
A supernova occurs when a big star burns its own fuel, causing a catastrophic collapse ending in an explosion of galactic proportions.
It is in these heavenly vortices that individual atoms merge to form many common elements, including sulfur and calcium.
Silica represents about 60% of the earth's crust and a particular form, quartz, is a major ingredient of sand.
In addition to glass windows and fiberglass, silica is also an important part of the industrial concrete recipe.
"We have shown for the first time that the silica produced by the supernovae is large enough to contribute to the dust throughout the universe, including the dust that eventually unites to form our planet", said Haley Gomez, from the University of Cardiff School. of physics and astronomy.
"Whenever we look through a window, walk on the sidewalk or set foot on a sandy beach, we interact with materials made from exploded stars that have burned millions of years ago. ; years. "
In 2016, scientists announced they found traces of lithium – a metal used in the manufacture of many modern electronic products – at the heart of the explosion of the nova, a phenomenon that occurs when a dwarf star White absorbs the hydrogen from a near sun.
The study was Posted in the Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society.
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