Paper: Indiana Evening Gazette City: Indiana, Pennsylvania Date: Saturday, November 12, 1977 Page: 8
Meteorite Gives Clue To Solar System
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - A meteorite plucked from the wilds of northern Mexico may help prove the theory that the solar system was born in the blast of a dying star.
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology said Friday they had found unusual forms of three elements while studying the so-called Allende meteorite, found in Mexico in 1969.
Dimitri Papanastassiou, an astronomer geologist said he discovery supports the theory that a supernova - the explosion of a dying star - forger primordial fields of glasses and dust into what is now our solar system.
"This discovery take that theory off of the cocktail discussion table and gives us something to work with," he said.
Discovery of new forms of the elements calcium, barium and neodymium in the meteorite means the three samples came from some source outside the early fields of gas and dust that formed the solar system, he said.
That source, the scientists speculate, was an exploding star that let out powerful shock waves and caused creation of the planets.
As further evidence, the Caltech group said the meteorite contained Aluminum 26, a rare form of aluminum. This acts as a "clock" on the meteorite. Papanastassiou said, dating the explosion of the supernova to "within less than 2 million years before the solar system was formed."
The notion is that you have something (some force) adding material to the solar system very soon after that material got formed." Papanastassiou said.
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