Our Solar System Formed From The Cumulative Ashes Of Countless Stars, Not One Supernova
Infant Stars Baby stars glow reddish-pink in this infrared image of the Serpens star-forming region, captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Our sun may have looked like one of these baby stars when it formed 4.5 billion years ago. NASA/JPL-Caltech/L. Cieza (University of Texas at AustinNew study challenges the theory that an exploding star provided the impetus for our solar system. We are all star stuff, as Carl Sagan once so eloquently put it--we come from remnants, the leftover pieces of long-dead stars and the elements forged inside of them. But a new theory says we came together as the result of a slow agglomeration, not a titanic explosion. Our solar system was born like a snowdrift on a blustery day, particles slowly clustering together in ever-increasing groups until something notable forms. This flies in the face of most solar system formation scholarship, which holds that shockwaves from a nearby supernova...