Re: P/Tr impact?

[Jeff Hecht <jhecht@world.std.com>]

At 9:23 AM -0800 2/24/01, James R. Cunningham wrote:
> Jeff and Tom, I'm speaking from memory, so may well be wrong.  I had the
> impression that the isotope ratios were typical of the enviroment of a more
> carbon rich star than ours, so would have had an extrasolar origin. 
> Of course,
> with the exception of hydrogen and some of the lighter elements, every atom on
> earth was originally processed or created in some other star and further
> processed by one or more supernovae before it wound up here.  But 
> the ratios (if
> memory serves) would imply that the buckyball itself was formed in 
> the environs
> of the other star. And that would statistically imply the likelyhood of
> relatively high velocity at the time of earth impact.  So compared to the K/T
> there's a possibility that we would receive more kinetic energy from a smaller
> impactor.  The massive African(?) sediments that appear to have been a
> consequence of the  P/T transition might be a place to look  for possible
> redeposited extrasolar materials.

Becker's interpretation is that the buckyballs formed near another 
star, possibly a supernova, and were included in that gas and dust 
from which the sun and planets formed. (That was what I was trying to 
say, but didn't say clearly.)

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