POSTPONED! - Universe Colloquium: Search for supernova debris in Earth's microfossil record

by Peter Ludwig (TUM)

Wednesday 17 Jul 2013, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Berlin

Seminar room, basement (Universe)

Attention: This talk is postponed to a later date which will be announced! When a nearby supernova explodes, our solar system is exposed to its ejecta, which can be incorporated into terrestrial geological records. In this talk, Peter will show how accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) can be used to detect such ejecta in the form of the long-lived radioisotope Fe-60. After a short introduction including earlier results of Fe-60 measurements, Peter will show why the fossils of magnetotactic bacteria in ocean sediment are a promising geological reservoir for Fe-60 measurements and present a novel technique for their characterization using magnetic measurements. For this project, two sediment cores from the Eastern Equatorial Pacific are being processed. The preliminary AMS results of the first core and an outlook for the second core will be presented as well. The Universe Colloquium is followed by a social gathering with wine and cheese.