Heliospheric Compression due to Recent Nearby Supernova Explosions

TL;DR

This study models how recent nearby supernova explosions have compressed the heliosphere, showing that the outer solar system was affected but Earth remained protected, with implications for understanding supernova material delivery.

Contribution

The paper provides new calculations of heliospheric compression due to supernovae at various distances, incorporating anisotropic solar wind and pressure balance scaling, to better understand past supernova impacts.

Findings

Outer solar system was directly exposed to supernova blast.

Inner planets, including Earth, were shielded from the blast plasma.

Supernova dust grains, not plasma, likely delivered supernova material to Earth.

Abstract

The widespread detection of 60Fe in geological and lunar archives provides compelling evidence for recent nearby supernova explosions within $\sim 100$ pc around 3 Myr 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 60Fe 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 the Earth -- were not. This finding reaffirms that the delivery of supernova material to the 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 $\sim100$s of kyr to expand beyond 100 au. Prospects for future work are discussed.