Scientists have discovered that the carbon ejected into space in supernovae outbursts form powerful streams that travel outside the Milky Way and there form a reservoir out of which star formation then feeds. That means the carbon that formed our bodies came from there.
Carbon cycle in the Galaxy
We’ve all heard that our bodies are made up of stardust — elements formed in supernovae outbursts. A team of scientists has recently revealed new details about how carbon, which makes up the bodies of all living things on Earth, travels across the Galaxy and even beyond.
The traditional view of this process paints a picture in which, after a supernova explosion, all the elements slowly spread out in all directions until they form gas-dust clouds, where star formation begins.
However, back in 2011, it was suggested that instead of slow drift, atoms of newly formed elements form fast currents that could be headed beyond the Galaxy. And recent research has confirmed this idea.
Scientists have realized that the Milky Way’s carbon cycle actually extends beyond the Milky Way. At its outskirts it forms giant clouds, and new streams then bring it from there to future star-forming regions.
Hubble research
The scientists were convinced that this was the case by the example of other galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope helped them to do this. It observed a beam of light bursting out of a distant quasar. It acted as a backlight, which helped to detect halos in 11 star systems.
Through spectrography, the scientists found that carbon was the main component that scattered the electromagnetic waves. And therefore, something similar must be happening in our Galaxy, or rather, around it.
This discovery is significant in explaining why the Milky Way’s stellar population seems to disappear somewhere over time. In fact, all this matter is stored in an external reservoir and gradually flows from it back into the Galaxy.
In addition, the discovery has great attitudinal significance. It turns out that the atoms in our bodies were once more than just part of the stars. On their way to us, they traveled beyond the Milky Way.
According to phys.org
