"The masked man" from space

(NLĐO) - A mysterious radioactive explosion has been detected deep beneath the Central and North Pacific Ocean .

By analyzing multiple thin crusts at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, scientists in Germany identified a sudden surge in the radioactive isotope beryllium-10 sometime between 9 and 12 million years ago.

Notably, beryllium-10 can only be formed with the intervention of cosmic elements.

The map marks areas with sudden spikes of the radioactive isotope beryllium-10 in the Pacific Ocean - Photo: GEBCO

A significant amount of beryllium-10 has been detected on the seabed of the Central and North Pacific Ocean, but the research team, led by physicist Dominik Koll from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf Institute (Germany), suggests that other areas of the Pacific Ocean may also contain it.

The source of this sudden increase is unknown, but researchers have offered a few ideas.

While beryllium-10 is linked to cosmic effects, it's not entirely unusual.

Their most common origin on Earth comes from cosmic rays interacting with the Earth's atmosphere.

When rain falls from the atmosphere and settles in the ocean, this isotope is incorporated into the extremely slow growth of certain deep, metal-rich crusts.

Nevertheless, the unusually high levels of beryllium-10 in the Pacific Ocean—nearly double the normal level—suggest that something must be causing the additional impact.

Dr. Koll and his colleagues suggest that a major "reorganization" of ocean currents may have occurred more than 9 million years ago, inadvertently causing these isotopes to be pushed into the Pacific Ocean.

Or it could be a global phenomenon, related to the catastrophic explosion of a star near Earth, called a supernova.

A supernova - Illustration: BBC Sky and Night Magazine

Supernovae occur at the end of a star's life, blasting matter from within the star far away. Cosmic dust from that explosion may have entered the solar system and coated Earth with a layer of radioactive isotopes.

Additionally, supernova explosions can also cause cosmic rays to become more active for a period of time, leading to a surge in beryllium-10 production in the atmosphere.

The research was recently published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/di-thuong-phong-xa-thai-binh-duong-ke-giau-mat-tu-vu-tru-196250216081340872.htm