Surviving the Supernova: The Cosmic Shield of Our Solar System
New calculations suggest that a filament of molecular gas, acting as a shield, protected our nascent Solar System from the destructive forces of a nearby supernova explosion. Evidence from isotope ratios in meteorites indicates that a supernova detonation occurred while our Solar System was forming. The dense filament around the forming Solar System would have taken at least 300,000 years to break up the blast wave, allowing the nascent Solar System to survive while acquiring the measured amount of isotopes from the supernova.