Australian scientists identify ‘alien’ substance on Pacific Ocean floor

The discovery of a strange substance on the floor of the Pacific Ocean could have big implications for heavy elements on the periodic table.

Aussie researchers have identified a mysterious substance which does not occur naturally on earth and is believed to have come from outer space.

The alien substance found on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by Japanese oil drillers was identified as Plutonium-244 and has a half-life of 80 million years.

Mere micrograms of the substance were also found alongside tiny amounts radioactive iron-60.

The mystery of how the substances got from some faraway planet to the bottom of the ocean has been solved thanks to Australian scientists — and it did not come from an alien invasion.

Scientists at Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANTSO) and the Australian National University now believe the elements came from cosmic material raining down following the explosion of a star 10 million years ago.

A supernova from our nearby galaxy M82 about 11.5 million light-years from Earth.

That is because any plutonium-244 that existed when the Earth formed from interstellar gas and dust over four billion years ago has long since decayed, so any trace of them discovered on earth must have occurred much more recently in terms of the history of our planet.

Researchers from Australia, Israel, Japan, Switzerland and Germany, developed that hypothesis which was tested by ANSTO using nuclear equipment at Lucas Heights.

ANU Professor Wallner said: “Possibly, this plutonium-244 was produced in supernova explosions or it could be left over from a much older, but even more spectacular event such as a neutron star detonation.”

ANSTO Principal Research Scientist Dr Michael Hotchkis said the material that had settled at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean had been untouched for millions of years.

“The answers to the origins of heavy elements aren’t in space, they’ve been here on Earth waiting to be found all along,” he said.

To inspect the material, it was placed in a small-sized high-voltage accelerator at Lucas Heights — a special machine which reveals the presence of heavy elements including plutonium.

That operates at a million volts which means individual atoms can be detected and scientists can identify which isotope each atom is.

“My laboratory at ANSTO was custom-built to optimise its sensitivity for heavy elements including plutonium isotopes,” Dr Hotchkis said.

“The sensitivity of our AMS instrument is at least 20 times better than that used in earlier attempts at similar studies.”

He said because the substance was found in such small amounts, it also bolstered the theory that other heavy elements of the periodic table also not originate on earth.

“Such a small amount means that, while supernovae can form heavy elements, it is more likely that most heavy elements we have on earth must actually have come from another source,” Dr Hotchkis said.