Monday, May 18, 2026

Iron and Ice: Earth's Passage Through the Interstellar Cloud

This illustration shows the Solar System's passage through the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC). The LIC could've been created by supernovae shockwaves, which also produced the isotope 60Fe. By examining that isotope in Antarctic ice, scientists are learning more about the LIC and Earth's passage through it. Image Credit: NASA / Adler / University of Chicago / Wesleyan.

Our Solar System is currently passing through the Local Interstellar Cloud, a region of highly diluted gas and dust between the stars. On its path, Earth continuously accumulates iron-60, a rare radioactive isotope of iron produced in stellar explosions. This has now been confirmed by an international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) through the analysis of Antarctic ice tens of thousands of years old. From the steady but time-varying influx, the researchers conclude that the radioactive isotope has been stored within the cloud since a long-past stellar explosion.



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