Heliospheric Compression Due to Recent Nearby Supernova Explosions

The widespread detection of Fe-60 in geological and lunar archives provides compelling evidence for recent nearby supernova explosions within similar to 100 pc at 3 and 7 Myr ago. The blasts from these explosions had a profound effect on the heliosphere. We perform new calculations to study the compression of the heliosphere due to a supernova blast. Assuming a steady but non-isotropic solar wind, we explore a range of properties appropriate for supernova distances inspired by recent Fe-60 data, and for a 20 pc supernova proposed to account for mass extinctions at the end-Devonian period. We examine the locations of the termination shock decelerating the solar wind and the heliopause that marks the boundary between the solar wind and supernova material. Pressure balance scaling holds, consistent with studies of other astrospheres. Solar wind anisotropy does not have an appreciable effect on shock geometry. We find that supernova explosions at 50 pc (95 pc) lead to heliopause locations at 16 au (23 au) when the forward shock arrives. Thus, the outer solar system was directly exposed to the blast, but the inner planets-including Earth-were not. This finding reaffirms that the delivery of supernova material to Earth is not from the blast plasma itself, but likely is from supernova dust grains. After the arrival of the forward shock, the weakening supernova blast will lead to a gradual rebound of the heliosphere, taking similar to few x 100 kyr to expand beyond 100 au. Prospects for future work are discussed.

Automated summary

The widespread detection of Fe-60 in geological and lunar archives provides compelling evidence for recent nearby supernova explosions. The study suggests that the outer solar system was exposed to the blast, but the inner planets, including Earth, were not directly affected. It reaffirms that the delivery of supernova material to Earth is likely through dust grains.