Maria Lugaro (Konkoly Observatory):

Maria Lugaro (Konkoly Observatory):
24/10

24. October 2019. 15:00 - 16:00

ELTE Lágymányos Campus, Northern Building, 0.81 (Ortvay lecture hall)

10/24

2019. October 24. 15:00 - 16:00

ELTE Lágymányos Campus, Northern Building, 0.81 (Ortvay lecture hall)


Radioactive nuclei from cosmochronology to habitability

Abstract: The analysis of meteorites shows that radioactive nuclei with half-lives or the order of millions of years were present at the birth of the Sun. The heat generated by the decay of one of such nuclei, aluminium-26, in the first few million years of the life of Solar System affected the thermo-mechanical and chemical evolution of planetesimals and the delivery of water to the Earth. By comparing meteoritic data to predictions for the production and evolution of radioactive nuclei in the Milky Way we are building a time line for the events that predated the birth of the Sun. The final aims are to identify the type of the stellar nursery where the Sun was born, understand the still mysterious origin of aluminium-26, and decide if its presence in proto-planetary disks is normal or special.


About the lecturer: