Related papers: Recent progress on interstellar radionuclides on E…
There is now solid experimental evidence of at least one supernova explosion within 100 pc of Earth within the last few million years, from measurements of the short-lived isotope 60Fe in widespread deep-ocean samples, as well as in the…
The discovery of radionuclides like 60Fe with half-lives of million years in deep-sea crusts and sediments offers the unique possibility to date and locate nearby supernovae. We want to quantitatively establish that the 60Fe enhancement is…
Massive stars are a major source of chemical elements in the cosmos, ejecting freshly produced nuclei through winds and core-collapse supernova explosions into the interstellar medium. Among the material ejected, long lived radioisotopes,…
Deep-sea archives all over the world show an enhanced concentration of the radionuclide $^{60}$Fe, isolated in layers dating from about 2.2 Myr ago. Since this comparatively long-lived isotope is not naturally produced on Earth, such an…
Radioactive components of the interstellar medium provide an entirely-different and new aspect to the studies of the interstellar medium. Injected from sources of nucleosynthesis, unstable nuclei decay along their trajectories. Measurements…
Ongoing experimental efforts to detect cosmic sources of high energy neutrinos are guided by the expectation that astrophysical accelerators of cosmic ray protons would also generate neutrinos through interactions with ambient matter and/or…
Measurements of long-lived radioisotopes provide a means, completely independent of other observational channels, to draw conclusions about near-Earth supernovae (SNe) and thus the origin of the Local Bubble (LB). First and foremost in this…
Traces of 2-3 Myr old 60Fe were recently discovered in a manganese crust and in lunar samples. We have found that this signal is extended in time and is present in globally distributed deep-sea archives. A second 6.5-8.7 Myr old signature…
The cosmic evolution of the chemical elements from the Big Bang to the present time is driven by nuclear fusion reactions inside stars and stellar explosions. A cycle of matter recurrently re-processes metal-enriched stellar ejecta into the…
We propose to advance investigations of electromagnetic radiation originating in atomic nuclei beyond its current infancy to a true astronomy. This nuclear emission is independent from conditions of gas, thus complements more traditional…
An enhanced concentration of 60Fe was found in a deep ocean's crust in 2004 in a layer corresponding to an age of ~2 Myr. The confirmation of this signal in terrestrial archives as supernova-induced and detection of other supernova-produced…
We survey the current situation regarding chemical modelling of the synthesis of molecules in the interstellar medium. The present state of knowledge concerning the rate coefficients and their uncertainties for the major gas-phase processes…
The astrophysical sites where r-process elements are synthesized remain mysterious: it is clear that neutron star mergers (kilonovae (KNe)) contribute, and some classes of core-collapse supernovae (SNe) are also likely sources of at least…
In this paper we review the search for astrophysical neutrinos. We begin by summarizing the various theoretical predictions which correlate the expected neutrino flux with data from other messengers, specifically gammas and ultra-high…
Gamma-ray line observations provide a versatile tool for studies of nucleosynthesis processes and supernova physics. In particular, the observation of radioactive species in the interstellar medium probes recent nucleosynthesis activity on…
Recent results have strongly confirmed that multiple supernovae happened at distances ~100 pc consisting of two main events: one at 1.7 to 3.2 million years ago, and the other at 6.5 to 8.7 million years ago. These events are said to be…
Current ongoing stellar spectroscopic surveys (RAVE, GALAH, Gaia-ESO, LAMOST, APOGEE, Gaia) are mostly devoted to studying Galactic archaeology and structure of the Galaxy. But they allow for important auxiliary science: (i) Galactic…
We explore the feasibility of using the Moon as a detector of extremely high energy (>10^19 eV) cosmic rays and neutrinos. The idea is to use the existing radiotelescopes on Earth to look for short pulses of Cherenkov radiation in the GHz…
The characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres through transit spectra is becoming increasingly feasible, and technology for direct detection remains ongoing. The possibility of detecting spectral features could enable quantitative…
Investigating the bubbles generated by the interaction between asymptotic giant branch stellar outflows and the interstellar medium (ISM) is pivotal for elucidating the mechanism by which evolved low- to intermediate-mass stars enrich the…