Solar system genealogy revealed by extinct short-lived [...] (Gounelle & Meynet)

Vol. 545
In section 6. Interstellar and circumstellar matter

Solar system genealogy revealed by extinct short-lived radionuclides in meteorites

The authors demonstrate how a sequence of pre-solar activity within a giant molecular cloud leads to a "genealogy" for the Sun. They used realistic modeling techniques for stellar evolution that are constrained by the observed meteoritic abundances and conclude that perhaps there was only a single WR star that was responsible for the majority of the short-lived radionuclides within a relatively low-density (100 solar mass) cluster. The comprehensive constraints are thoroughly presented and analyzed. This is the first such pre-birth scenario to achieve broad agreement with observations.