The contamination of cometary globules by the ejecta of nearby massive stars

Abstract

It has been argued in the past that the ejecta of massive stars might explain the presence of shortlived nuclear species found in chondritic meteorites. The purpose of this paper is to provide new evidence in favor of such a picture. We will show that the Gum Nebula can be a good model for understanding the physical context in which our own solar system was born. This nebula is the sight of secondary low mass star formation induced by the massive stars at the center of the nebula. Recent theories of the propagation of stellar winds in the ISM (wind bubbles) and new models of massive stars, including detailed nucleosynthesis, allow one to follow in some detail the contamination process of the cometary globules by the ejecta of the massive stars located near the center of the nebula. We will show that the abundances of some short lived-species in chondritic meteorites are consistent with the amount that should be injected in the cometary globules of the Gum Nebula. The Gum Nebula is a region that offers the opportunity to understand stellar formation under simplified conditions.