Deep-sea crust uncovers steady plutonium rain from ancient kilonova debris, revealing a hidden cosmic event that continued shaping Earth long after the explosion. A new study found rare plutonium atoms inside a Pacific Ocean ferromanganese crust, showing that material from a distant neutron star merger reached Earth for more than 100 million years.
The discovery changes how scientists understand cosmic explosions, heavy element formation, and the movement of ancient space dust. Researchers detected only a few hundred atoms of plutonium-244 in a kilogram of crust, yet those tiny traces carried a massive story about the universe.
