A rare Sort Ia supernova, the type of explosion that established the existence of dark energy, is thought to have generated an unusual Egyptian meteorite. If the allegation is correct, the rock is an unrivaled scientific treasure that has the potential to upend our understanding of Solar System creation and shed new light on some of the universe’s most massive explosions. The Sahara desert, like the Antarctic ice sheet, is an excellent area to look for meteorites since there is no vegetation to disguise them and black rocks stand out.
In 1996, a 30-gram fragment of granite discovered near the Egypt/Libya border was called the Hypatia Stone after the famed Egyptian mathematician (c 360-415 CE) who was allegedly slain by religious zealots for being a woman. Micro diamonds abound in the stone, unlike anything we’ve seen in previous meteorites. The stone was once thought to be a comet nucleus remnant, but scientists investigating it have now provided a considerably more dramatic explanation in the journal Icarus. They say that not only was the stone generated in the aftermath of a supernova explosion but that we can even distinguish which kind it was.
Professor Jan Kramers of the University of Johannesburg and co-authors believe the stone developed from interstellar dust since its basic make-up is unlike any other known meteorite. Even the outer Solar System, where the stone was once assumed to come from, isn’t different enough from the inner regions to account for its make-up, notably the unusual lack of silicon. Although at least one meteorite from before the Solar System has been postulated, Hypatia’s composition is far odd.
The authors began a long process of comparing the number of components in the stone with the conditions under which they are generated. The material thrown off during a Type Ia supernova, which occurs when a white dwarf star sucks so much material from a nearby star that it bursts, is the closest match. The explosion, according to the scientists, happened amid a dust cloud left behind by a collapsing red giant when the white dwarf formed.
They believe that gas ejected by the supernova clung to dust particles in the surrounding cloud and condensed into a bigger entity over time. The sections of this bigger item that did not burn up fractured when it reached the Earth’s atmosphere, and the Hypatia stone is the only piece we have located.
In a statement, Kramers said, “If this idea is right, the Hypatia stone would be the first concrete evidence on Earth of a supernova type Ia explosion.” “We’ve ‘caught’ a supernova Ia explosion ‘in the act,’ since the gas atoms from the explosion were captured in the surrounding dust cloud, which eventually became Hypatia’s parent body.” Type Ia supernova evidence had previously been found on Earth, but only in the form of trace elements dispersed throughout the ocean floor.
Many of the elements present on Earth and other planets are only generated in supernova explosions, neutron star collisions, and even Wolf-Rayet stars, according to scientists. However, it is considered that all of the elements seeded into the Solar System from these sources were well mixed via the initial gas cloud. Atoms had a chance to cling together with others of their sort only later, it was thought. If the authors’ theory about the Hypatia stone is correct, it can only be supported if the stone was part of an interstellar visitation like ‘Oumuamua.
However, the evidence presented in the study is not yet complete. Alternative hypotheses, such as red giant neighbors and Type II supernova, do not suit the quantity of iron in Hypatia as well as the one presented. It also works well with the abundance of seven other elements and silicon’s scarcity. The Hypatia stone, on the other hand, contains 10-100 times more of six elements than a Type Ia supernova would create. “Because a white dwarf star is produced from a dying red giant,” Kramers explained, “Hypatia might have received these element proportions for the six elements from a red giant star.” Even the authors admit that this theory is speculative, especially when it is altered to account for the missing silicon.
