Origins of the Solar System

PBS NOVA scienceNOW Did an ancient supernova explosion trigger the birth of the solar system? Scientists are finally closing in on evidence that, nearly five billion years ago, a supernova shock wave swept through a cloud of dust and gas and caused it to collapse, eventually forming the sun and the planets. Meteorite hunters have scoured the globe for space rocks containing evidence of this ancient supernova in the form of rare isotopes that could only be created in the intense pressure of a supernova explosion. Working side-by-side with computer modelers, who create dazzling visual simulations of the baby solar system, they have revealed that the death of an enormous star, at least twenty times the mass of our sun, could be responsible for the birth of our own solar system. We also see amazing Hubble images of nebulae where the same cycle is happening today.

You can listen to Origins of the Solar System online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Origins of the Solar System is an episode from Marabella Productions by Mark Marabella.

This episode is 0:58 long.

This episode was published on Dec 10, 2010.

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