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Solar System Formation and Supernovae

-- Rebecca | July 8, 2020

An artist's impression of Supernova 1986J.

Question:

Did the solar system form directly from a supernova? As in, a star went supernova and it’s remnants formed into the sun and planets. Is the remaining gas cloud dense enough to even coalesce?

-- Rebecca

Answer:

In fact, the prevalent theory for the formation of our solar system is that a cloud of gas and dust collapsed due to self-gravity to form our Sun. A disk of gas and dust left over from the formation of our Sun also formed around the Sun, which resulted in the formation of the planets in our solar system. There is a likely connection between the formation of stars and planets and supernovae, though, in that when a supernova explodes it deposits gas into the interstellar medium that has been enriched in heavy elements. Since stars and planets form from gas clouds in the interstellar medium, gas which has been enriched by supernovae, new stars and planets which form in our galaxy contain some gas which was originally part of a star which ended as a supernova.

-- Jeff Mangum

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