Mechanism to Create Aluminum-26

ppd_with_field_lines_2.jpg

ppd_with_field_lines_2.jpg

This schematic of the proposed mechanism shows a cutaway view of a young star and the disk of gas surrounding it, in which planets may form. The gas parcel Offner's team modeled is depicted as a cluster of red dots. The 'inner disk' is the region from the star out to Earth's distance from the Sun (1 Astronomical Unit, or about 93 million miles). Some fraction of the enriched outflow gas may fall onto the disk where the cosmic ray irradiation is weak. Regions I and II denote different regions of cosmic ray transport. Credit: Brandt Gaches et al./Univ. of Cologne