Space is odd weird and fascinating we've all at least once in life dreamt of
going to space but we forget we're traveling in space all the time
on a giant rock that sort of looks like a ball the true space ball space balls
there goes the planet though this rock was formed four and a half billion years ago
space didn't stop contributing to it a strange extraterrestrial space rock unearthed in the
Sahara Desert is an unexpected gift from the universe that we've unwrapped millions of
years after its delivery and could be the first evidence on earth for a rare type of supernova
welcome to Factnomenal and today we're looking at the Hypatia stone which may be our first clue to
understanding one of the most fascinating astrophysical phenomena of the universe
the concerned extraterrestrial rock was discovered in December 1996 by Aly A. Barakat
at a location close to the Libyan border of Egypt directly in proximity to a dark slag-like
glassy material that was interpreted to be a form of Libyan desert glass it's named after
ancient Egypt's Greek mathematician and astronomer Hypatia who was the first woman scholar in
her field to have her life and accomplishments reasonably recorded she overcame inherent sexism
in hellenistic Egypt to become the leader of the neo-platonus school of philosophy in Alexandria
a brilliant public speaker and scholar Hypatia invented the astrolabe for ship navigation and
devices for measuring the density of fluids nobody deserves an extraterrestrial rock found in Egypt
named after them more than her university of johannesburg scientists believe that the hypatia
rock is not just some ordinary meteoroid or comet but from the remains of a type 1a
supernova supernovas are stellar explosions out in the universe as the star runs out of
nuclear fuel some of its mass flows into its core eventually the core becomes so heavy
that it cannot withstand its own gravitational force the core collapses which results in a giant
explosion of a supernova a type 1a supernova is a rare explosion that occurs when a dense
white dwarf star absorbs another due to its chemical makeup and patterning earlier tests
by researchers jan kramers and giorgi bellianen of the university of johannesburg showed that hypatia
contains microscopic diamonds due to the presence of several anomalous isotopic distributions
unknown in prior association some believe the hypatia material is of extraterrestrial origin
although significant terrestrial contamination was dismissed by proponents as being impact orthogenic
from the incorporation of the terrestrial atmosphere the physics of which were unresolved to
garner their discovery the team examined 17 different targets on the small hypatia samples
they were able to track the rock's origin based on the low levels of silicon chromium and manganese
which helped them realize it was indeed not only from space but also outside of the inner
solar system it's assumed that hypatia may have impacted earth approximately 28 million years ago
after studying the rock fragments through chemical analysis the team noted that this
stone likely came from a parent body a celestial mass that created meteorites
this celestial entity must have existed around the time our solar system was created
jan kramers a geochemist from the university of johannesburg explained that the gas atoms
from a massive explosion were likely caught in the surrounding dust cloud which eventually
formed hypatia's parent body according to him it's like catching a supernova 1a explosion in the act
type 1a supernovae typically take place inside dust clouds where a white dwarf or
the shriveled husk of a collapsed star shares an orbit with a larger younger star that
still has some fuel to burn the smaller and denser white dwarf uses its immense gravitational pull to
snatch some of the younger star's fuel devouring relentlessly stretching the younger star into a
teardrop shape this act of cosmic cannibalism eventually ends in mutual destruction however
as the vampiric white dwarf grows large enough for nuclear reactions to reignite its core
after a sudden bright flash an enormous supernova blast hurls the irradiated contents of both stars
outwards to mingle and merge with the dust in the case of the hypatia stone the concoction of dust
and gas likely drifted through space over billions of years until it arrived in our neighborhood
the new research suggests that this hurling mixture eventually solidified into the larger
parent body of the hypatia stone sometime during the birth of our solar system it must have formed
somewhere in the outer solar system and then homed in towards earth shattering into fragments
first as it must have powered through the earth's atmosphere and then second when it landed
having a piece of a former star in our hands sure does sound cool and all but there's still
some doubts about the authenticity of the claim six of the stone's elements aluminum phosphorus
chlorine potassium copper and zinc are present at concentrations that ranged from 10 to 100
times more than to be expected for a type 1a supernova the researchers are still optimistic
as they think this could point to the supernova's origins as a red giant star that preserved more
of its original elemental composition than the models predicted cramers explains that
this phenomenon is nothing new and has been observed in white dwarf stars during other
research the researchers hope to explain those anomalous levels after conducting more analysis
in the meantime they're enthusiastic about the prospect of the potential supernova evidence and
what it could say about the origin of the solar system cramer's mentioned that the hypatia stone
proves that an individual anomalous parcel of dust from outer space could actually be incorporated
into the solar nebula that our solar system was formed from without being fully mixed in
this goes against the conventional view that the dust which our solar system was formed from was
thoroughly mixed despite the shroud of mystery that hangs over hypatia's existence we do know
that it formed in an environment with temperatures colder than that of liquid nitrogen which is about
minus 384 degrees fahrenheit or minus 196 celsius we also know that it came from an
area beyond the asteroid belt which produces the majority of our meteorites the kuiper belt where
most of our comets come from however very little is known about the chemical compositions of deeper
space objects so the researchers kept changing their parameters to different possible origins
including interstellar bands of dust in the milky way a red giant star and even
a type 2 supernova which occurs when a massive star runs out of fuel collapses then explodes
however the composition of the hypatia stone ruled out each of these possibilities even
though the hypatia stone samples weren't a hundred percent matched to a type 1a supernova it turns
out that the chemical signature of the hypatia stone closely resembles the chemical signature
that the scientists had hypothesized so by the process of elimination we have an arguable winner
according to an earlier study this year conducted by the technical university of denmark there's a
correlation between the fraction of organic matter buried in sediments and the changes in supernovae
occurrence that means star explosions or supernovae have created the essential
conditions to sustain life on earth astronomers estimate that a handful of stars in our galaxy go
supernova every century throughouters history it's likely some of these stellar explosions have been
close enough to cause catastrophic damage to our planet and as some researchers believe potentially
alter the evolutionary trajectory of life the charge has drawn skepticism but has revived a
debate about how susceptible life is to cosmic influence professor svensmart looked back through
500 million years of geological and astronomical data and considered the proximity of the sun to
supernovae as it moves around our galaxy he observed that when the sun is passing through
the spiral arms of the milky way in particular it encounters newly forming clusters of stars
these so-called open clusters which disperse over time have a range of age and sizes and
would have started with a small proportion of stars massive enough to explode as supernovae
professor svensmark deduced from the data on open clusters how the rate at which supernovae exploded
near the solar system varied over time comparing this with the geological record he found that the
changing frequency of nearby supernovae seems to have strongly shaped the conditions for life
on earth whenever the sun and its planets have visited regions of enhanced star formation in the
milky way galaxy where exploding stars are most common life has prospered he also notices that
most geological periods seem to begin and end with either an upturn or downturn in the supernova rate
the changes in typical species that define a period in the transition from one to the
next could then be the result of a major change in the astrophysical environment interestingly
the earth's bioproductivity can be tracked by the amount of carbon dioxide in the air
at various times in the past as set out in the geological record when supernova rates were high
carbon dioxide was scarce suggesting that flourishing microbial and plant life in the oceans
consumed it greedily to grow although the analysis suggests that supernovae are on the whole good for
life high supernova rates can bring the cold and changeable climate of prolonged glacial episodes
and they can have nasty shocks in store such as an ice age hopefully with the hypatia stone
we'll be able to decipher some of the mysteries of the brightest events in space and what life
has got to do with them tell us in the comments if you believe or not that the vital components
for life on earth were delivered by comets and as always thanks for watching Factnomenal