Scientists find iron-60 stardust in Antarctic ice, trace to supernovae
Technology
Scientists just found tiny bits of radioactive stardust, iron-60, from ancient supernovae buried in Antarctic ice.
Published on May 13, 2026, the study suggests this cosmic dust hitched a ride to Earth through the Local Interstellar Cloud, a thick patch of space our solar system has been moving through for tens of thousands of years.
Older Antarctic layers have less iron-60
By melting and analyzing 300kg of Antarctic ice, the team noticed that older layers (40,000 to 80,000 years old) had less iron-60 than fresh snow.
This points to changing waves of interstellar dust reaching Earth, and hints that these atoms came from a nearby star explosion.
Next up: the researchers want to dig even deeper into older ice to map out our solar system's journey through the galaxy.