The Oneness Zone

The Incarnation of Milky Way Galaxy

In an investigation smacking of forensic detective work, scientists have measured the rate of star death and rebirth in our galaxy by combing through the sparse remains of exploded stars from the last few million years.
As reported in the January 5 issue of Nature, the scientists used the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL sattelite to explore regions of the galaxy shining brightly from the radioactive decay of aluminum-26, an isotope of aluminum. This aluminum is produced in massive star and in their explosions, called supernovae, and it emits a telltale light signal in the gamma-ray energy range. aluminum-26 is found primarily in star-forming regions throughout the galaxy; about once every 50 years a massive star will go supernova in our galaxy (yes, we are overdue); and each year our galaxy creates on average about seven new stars.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., oversees the INTEGRAL U.S. Guest Observer Facility, which funded part of this research. These results will also be presented January 9 at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington.

"Our galaxy isn't the biggest producer of stars and supernovae in the universe, but there's still plenty of activity," said Dr. Roland Diehl of Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, lead author on the Nature report. "A sustained star formation rate of this magnitude is just what one needs to drive its chemical and dynamical evolution, which has led to life on Earth."

posted by fusionlin @ 8:50 AM