Speaker
Description
The recent detection of interstellar Pu-244 in deep-sea samples points to an influx into the solar system of short-lived r-process nuclides over the past 10 million years. The Pu was found in a terrestrial sample that has grown over million years, together with supernova (SN)-produced Fe-60 (2.6 Myr half-life). Pu-244 is radioactive (81 Myr) and must have been produced within a few half-lives; this is, within the past few hundred million years. The measured signal does not tell whether Pu was produced in the same event as the Fe-60, i.e. in SNe, or independently in an older event and had been deposited later as swept-up material concomitantly with the younger Fe-60. The absolute influx of Pu-244, however, suggests that SNe are not dominant producers of the heavy r-process elements. Comparison with the early solar system abundance ratios of actinides such as Pu-244 vs Cm-247 may help to exclude some production scenarios.
| Length of presentation requested | Oral presentation: 17 min + 3 min questions |
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| Please select between one and three keywords related to your abstract | Cosmic Radioactive Deposits in Solar-System Samples |
