A recent study about the role of supernovae originating from exploding white dwarfs shed more light on the origin of heavy elements
A type 1a supernova is a system of two stars orbiting one another, in which one of the stars is a white dwarf, ultimately resulting in a supernova explosion.
A recent paper by an international team, with authors Dr Umberto Battino and Dr Claudia Lederer-Woods from the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics of the University of Edinburgh, has demonstrated that the final explosion could actually create a stellar site where the Solar System abundances of 30 rare heavy proton-rich atomic nuclei (p-nuclei) originated, and polluted with their freshly synthetized chemical elements the protosolar nebula before our Sun was born.
The paper presents computer simulations of mass-accretion on white-dwarfs and the ensuing type 1a supernova explosion. The full complex network of nuclear reactions is calculated and chemical abundances are compared to those observed in the Solar System, resulting in a very good match for the majority of the p-nuclei. This demonstrates how Type Ia supernova can actually have played a central role in the chemical enrichment history of our Galaxy.
References:
Battino et al. 2020; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 497, Issue 4, pp.4981-4998
