Here's How Exploding Stars Forged The Calcium in Your Teeth And Bones
Up to half the calcium in the Universe – and that includes our bones and teeth – is thought to come from exploding supernova stars, and researchers have now been able to get unprecedented insight at how these ultra-rare, calcium-rich supernovae reach the end of their lives.
The never-before-seen look at how these stellar explosions throw out so much calcium was carried out using deep space X-ray and infrared imaging, and fills in quite a few of the gaps in our scientific knowledge about the process.
Drawing together contributions from 67 authors across 15 countries, the resulting study suggests that the calcium-rich supernovae start off as compact stars that quickly lose mass at the end of their lives, giving off an outer layer of gas that exploding materials then collide with.
"These events are so few in number that we have never known what produced calcium-rich supernovae," says astrophysicist Wynn Jacobson-Galan, from Northwestern University.
"By observing what this star did in its final month before it reached its critical, tumultuous end, we peered into a place previously unexplored, opening new avenues of study within transient science."
The supernova in question, SN 2019ehk, was first spotted by amateur astronomer Joel Shepherd in the Messier 100 (M100) spiral galaxy about 55 million light-years away from Earth. Very soon after the discovery was made, most of Earth's major telescopes were following it – with transient events like this, speed is crucial.
"Most massive stars create small amounts of calcium during their lifetimes, but events like SN 2019ehk appear to be responsible for producing vast quantities of calcium and in the process of exploding disperse it through interstellar space within galaxies," says astronomer Régis Cartier, from the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) in the US.
"Ultimately this calcium makes its way into forming planetary systems, and into our bodies in the case of our Earth!"
https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-how-the-calcium-in-your-teeth-and-bones-was-at-least-partially-forged-in-exploding-stars
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