Calcium keeps the Milky Way going

Study finds the cosmos contains 50 per cent more calcium than previously thought

Just as human beings need calcium to keep the bones strong, so does the universe to keep itself going. A new study finds that the Milky Way Galaxy and the rest of the universe is fortified with calcium and the cosmos contains 50 per cent more calcium than previously thought.

Calcium is a soft metal and the fifth most abundant element in Earth8217;s crust. Organisms depend on it for chemical assistance with muscle contraction, bones and tooth structure, blood clotting, fluid balance in cells, in regulating the heartbeat and other processes.

Reporting the study, space.com says explosions of massive stars produce and eject lots of heavy elements into space. The building blocks of new stars, planets and life are released during the final moments of these supernova blasts.

Iron, that aids in producing our red blood cells, and calcium, that hardens our bones, are made up of atoms that come from these violent outbursts. Stellar matter ejected from these explosions form swirls of hot gases that surround galaxies. The calcium atoms in the hot gas emit X-rays with a specific wavelength, which can be detected with instruments aboard ESA8217;s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory.

8220;The amount of X-ray radiation at that wavelength is related to the real amount of calcium,8221; Jelle de Plaa, a researcher at the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, told Space.com. De Plaa looked to distant clusters of galaxies containing 20 to 30 per cent of visible matter to measure the amount of calcium.

8220;In clusters, a lot of the supernova products end up in the hot gas,8221; De Plaa said. 8220;Clusters are in many ways the big cities of the universe.8221;

The researchers compared the amounts of the products expected from theoretical models of supernovae with measurements from XMM-Newton X-ray observatory within 22 galaxy clusters.

Story continues below this ad

The observed amounts of the seven elements 8212; oxygen, neon, silicon, sulfur, argon, iron and nickel 8212; jibed with theoretical predictions, but the calcium did not match up. 8220;Since we checked that there was nothing wrong with our measurements, we concluded that the supernova model must be under predicting the calcium abundance,8221; De Plaa said. The study is detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.