Earth is flying through ancient supernova debris and scientists found the evidence in Antarctic ice | ScienceDaily

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Earth is flying through ancient supernova debris and scientists found the evidence in Antarctic ice

Earth is drifting through the lingering ashes of an ancient exploding star — and scientists found the evidence frozen deep in Antarctic ice.

Date:<br>May 13, 2026<br>Source:<br>Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf<br>Summary:<br>Earth is quietly collecting radioactive debris from an ancient stellar explosion as our Solar System drifts through a giant cloud of gas and dust between the stars. Scientists analyzing Antarctic ice up to 80,000 years old discovered traces of iron-60 — a rare isotope forged in supernova explosions — and found evidence that this “cosmic ash” has been lingering inside the Local Interstellar Cloud for ages. The discovery suggests the cloud surrounding our Solar System was shaped by a long-ago exploding star, offering researchers a new way to study our galactic neighborhood.<br>Share:

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FULL STORY

Path of the solar system through the Local Interstellar Cloud. The cloud’s profile is preserved as an interstellar fingerprint in Antarctic ice. Credit: B. Schröder/HZDR/ NASA/Goddard/Adler/U.Chicago/Wesleyan

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Earth is traveling through a cloud of ancient stellar debris left behind by a long ago exploding star. By studying Antarctic ice that formed tens of thousands of years ago, researchers detected traces of iron-60, a rare radioactive form of iron created during supernova explosions. The findings support the idea that the Local Interstellar Cloud surrounding our Solar System contains material from an ancient stellar blast.

The research was led by an international team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), and the results were published in Physical Review Letters.

Rare Supernova Iron Found in Antarctic Ice

Iron-60 forms deep inside massive stars and is released into space when those stars explode as supernovae. Previous studies found evidence that Earth was exposed to iron-60 from nearby supernova explosions millions of years ago. However, no recent stellar explosions close to Earth are known, leaving scientists uncertain about the source of iron-60 discovered in relatively young Antarctic snow a few years ago.

"Our idea was that the Local Interstellar Cloud contains iron-60 and can store it over long time periods. As the Solar System moves through the cloud, Earth could collect this material. However, we couldn't prove this at the time," explains Dr. Dominik Koll from the Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research at HZDR.

To investigate further, Koll and Prof. Anton Wallner studied additional geological samples in recent years, including deep sea sediments up to 30,000 years old. Those samples also contained iron-60, but scientists still could not fully rule out other explanations.

The newly analyzed Antarctic ice samples are much older, dating back between 40,000 and 80,000 years. According to the team, the results strongly point to the Local Interstellar Cloud as the source of the radioactive material.

"This means that the clouds surrounding the Solar System are linked to a stellar explosion. And for the first time, this gives us the opportunity to investigate the origin of these clouds," says Koll.

Solar System Traveling Through an Interstellar Cloud

Scientists believe the Solar System entered the Local Interstellar Cloud several tens of thousands of years ago and is expected to exit it again within the next few thousand years. Researchers say the Solar System is currently located near the cloud's outer edge.

For the study, the team focused on an ice core covering the time period when the Solar System may have entered the cloud. The sample was provided by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) through the European EPICA ice drilling project.

When researchers compared the ice core results with earlier snow and deep sea sediment measurements, they discovered that less iron-60 reached Earth between 40,000 and 80,000 years ago than today.

"This suggests that we were previously in a medium with lower iron-60 content, or that the cloud itself exhibits strong density variations," explains Koll.

The team found that the iron-60 signal changes significantly over periods of only tens of thousands of years, which is relatively rapid on cosmic timescales. This helped researchers rule out competing theories, including the idea that the material came from older supernova explosions that slowly faded over millions of years.

Extracting Tiny Traces of Iron-60

To carry out the study, researchers transported about 300 kilograms of Antarctic ice from AWI in Bremerhaven to Dresden for chemical processing. After extensive preparation, only a few hundred milligrams of dust remained.

Scientists then...