If I understand astrophysics correctly, all copper, zinc, silver, iodine, tungsten, platinum, gold, mercury, lead, etc molecules were originally created in the explosion of a supernovae. Also, from what I understand there should also be a very large and dense internal iron core that would have been left by this explosion. My questions is: where do you suppose the core of this Grandparent Sun that must have created all these higher elements in our solar system and likely exploded 10-12 billion years ago is located right now?! After such a long period, would it still be giving off any form of radiation that could be detected by Earth? Could it be part of all this 'dark matter' everyone is looking for? Where could this core have gone? Thanks... mike
In a supernova explosion, it could also be that there is nothing left, that all matter of the star was disperced by the explosion. If anything will be left, it won't be an iron core though since gravity is much to strong to leave the atoms intact with such dense matter like the core of a star. It could be that a white dwarf is left behind (but this would mean that the star wasn't that big to begin with or that a lot of matter was blown away in the supernova explosion). That would be degenerate matter, this means that the electron shells of the atoms are cracked by the intense pressure of gravity so that you have a chaotic mixture of protons, neutrons and electrons. It could also be that a neutronstar was left, here the pressure of gravity was even greater, forcing the electrons to bind with the protons and become neutrons. The entire star is basically one large atomic nucleus. Last but not least a black hole could be the result of the collapse of the nucleus of a very heavy star at the end of its life.
Ok - that's great... but my real question was: Where is the remnance of the actual supernova that created the gold that I am wearing around my wrist?! If it didn't complete explode into a million pieces - where is the white dwarf, or neutronstar, or black hole that was left over? I'm betting it isn't too far off...
Well, first of all it ain't necessarily so that there is only one supernova that contributed to the elements that we are made from. Second all this happened more then five billion years ago, this is a very long time. A white dwarf for example is called this way because it is still glowing because of the explosion that created it, after some time it will become darker and darker, a brown dwarf and eventually, given enough time, a black dwarf emitting no radiation at all and therefore not detectible through direct measurement. A neutron star, also called a pulsar, emits very high energy radiation and because it spins around that fast (all the spin of a star is concentrated in its nucleus that is left behind like a ballerina on ice folding her arms together) it shines like a blinking flashlight. This rotation becomes less and less because of this emission of energy and eventually dies out, therefore making the star not detectible through direct measurement. A black hole is by its very nature not detectible through direct measurement. All this would make the predescessor(s) of our sun indeed very hard to impossible to find...
