One of the closest candidates of this size is the red supergiant Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, located at a safe range of about 150 parsecs from our solar system.Production of interstellar isotopesMany brand-new atoms are created during cosmic surges or quickly before and during the supernova– among them also a number of radioactive atoms. Wallner and his coworkers in Australia are presently on the hunt for additional cosmic isotopes– in Canberra he is browsing for Fe-60 atoms, in Sydney for PU-244 atoms. Only just recently has it been possible to determine about a hundred plutonium-244 atoms at a specialized infrastructure in Sydney– similar to the HAMSTER facility currently under development at the HZDR.However, just specific samples are appropriate for investigation, which act as archives to protect these atoms coming from space for millions of years.
One of the closest prospects of this size is the red supergiant Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, located at a safe range of about 150 parsecs from our solar system.Production of interstellar isotopesMany brand-new atoms are produced during cosmic surges or shortly before and during the supernova– amongst them likewise a number of radioactive atoms. Wallner and his coworkers in Australia are currently on the hunt for additional cosmic isotopes– in Canberra he is browsing for Fe-60 atoms, in Sydney for PU-244 atoms. Only extremely few iron-60 atoms per square centimeter reach the Earth each year. Even after very intricate chemical preparation of the samples, they are still billions of times more plentiful than iron-60 and must be separated in a special accelerator center using nuclear physics methods.In the end, maybe five individual iron-60 atoms are identified in a measuring process that lasts numerous hours. Just just recently has it been possible to figure out about a hundred plutonium-244 atoms at a specialized facilities in Sydney– similar to the HAMSTER center currently under development at the HZDR.However, just particular samples are appropriate for investigation, which act as archives to protect these atoms coming from space for millions of years.
