Close Call: Supernova Nearly Wiped Out Solar System Formation

A nearby supernova explosion threatened to destroy the infant Solar System about 4.6 billion years ago, but a filament of molecular gas protected it from destruction. Astronomers found evidence of the explosion in meteorites, which contained an uneven concentration of the radioactive isotope aluminum-26. The team suggests that the Sun formed in a dense molecular gas filament, which shielded the birth creche from the supernova shock wave. The filament also caught the radioactive isotopes from the supernova blast wave and channeled them into the still-forming Solar System.