Related papers: Some selected comments on cosmic radioactivities
Radioisotopes are natural clocks which can be used to estimate the age of the solar system. They also influence the shape of supernova light curves. In addition, the diffuse emission at 1.8 MeV from the decay of 26Al may provide a measure…
Radioactive nuclei are the key to understanding the circumstances of the birth of our Sun because meteoritic analysis has proven that many of them were present at that time. Their origin, however, has been so far elusive. The ERC-CoG-2016…
Supernovae release an enormous amount of energy into the interstellar medium. Their remnants can observationally be traced up to several ten-thousand years. So far more than 230 Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) have been identified in the…
Most of the visible matter in the Universe is in a plasma state, or more specifically is composed of ionized or partially ionized gas permeated by magnetic fields. Thanks to recent advances on the theory and detection of cosmic magnetic…
Radioactive decay of unstable atomic nuclei leads to liberation of nuclear binding energy in the forms of gamma-ray photons and secondary particles (electrons, positrons); their energy then energises surrounding matter. Unstable nuclei are…
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…
It has been speculated that WR winds may have contaminated the forming solar system, in particular with short-lived radionuclides (half-lives in the approximate 10^5 - 10^8 y range) that are responsible for a class of isotopic anomalies…
The quest to comprehend how nuclear processes influence astrophysical phenomena is driving experimental and theoretical research programs worldwide. One of the main goals in nuclear astrophysics is to understand how energy is generated in…
Magnetic field is ubiquitous in the Universe and it plays essential roles in various astrophysical phenomena, yet its real origin and evolution are poorly known. This article reviews current understanding of magnetic fields in the…
Since more than a century we investigate cosmic particles coming from the Universe with the aim of understanding their nature, their origin and how they are accelerated. So far, cosmic rays have provided many impressive results, giving…
Establishing the origin of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) with half-lives $\leq$ 100 Myr has important implications for the astrophysical context of our Sun's birth place. We review here the different origins proposed for the variety of…
The description of the tempo-spatial evolution of the composition of cosmic gas on galactic scales is called 'modelling galactic chemical evolution'. It aims to use knowledge about sources of nucleosynthesis and how they change the…
Measuring the cosmic ray flux over timescales comparable to the age of the solar system, $\sim 4.5\,$Gyr, could provide a new window on the history of the Earth, the solar system, and even our galaxy. We present a technique to indirectly…
Cosmic radiation backgrounds are a constraint on life, and their distribution will affect the Galactic Habitable Zone. Life on Earth has developed in the context of these backgrounds, and characterizing event rates will elaborate the…
A brief survey of nuclide abundances in the solar-system and in cosmic rays and of the believed mechanisms of their synthesis is given. The role of spallation processes in nucleosynthesis is discussed. A short review of recent measurements,…
An attempt is made, probably for the first time, to understand the origin of the solar system in context with the evolution of the galaxy as a natural consequence of the birth of several generations of stellar clusters. The galaxy is…
Molecules containing short-lived, radioactive nuclei are uniquely positioned to enable a wide range of scientific discoveries in the areas of fundamental symmetries, astrophysics, nuclear structure, and chemistry. Recent advances in the…
Meteorite studies have revealed the presence of short-lived radioactivities in the early solar system. The current data suggests that the origin of at least some of the radioactivities requires contribution from recent nucleosynthesis at a…
The relative abundances of the radionuclides in the solar system at the time of its birth are crucial arbiters for competing hypotheses regarding the birth environment of the Sun. The presence of short-lived radionuclides, as evidenced by…
Cosmic rays of kinetic energies below ~1 GeV per nucleon are thought to play a key role in the chemistry and dynamics of the interstellar medium. They are also thought to be responsible for nucleosynthesis of the light elements Li, Be, and…