[meteorite-list] NPA 11-12-1977 Allende Meteorite Gives Clue To Solar System

[MARK BOSTICK]

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.

(end)

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Mark Bostick
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