They come from supernovae
Marco Pignatari
MTA CSFK CSI


A significant fraction of presolar grains found today in pristine meteorites condensed in the ejecta of old core-collapse supernovae before the formation of the solar system, and they are carriers of isotopic abundances imprinted from these ancient explosions. Presolar dust are literally pieces of stars that we cannot observe or identify anymore, but that we can touch and study in laboratories today. The comparison between the anomalous abundances measured in many of these single grains and theoretical stellar model predictions represents a powerful constraint for massive star evolution and for our understanding of the core-collapse supernova engine. I will discuss some of these isotopic abundance signatures, and how we can use them today to learn more about the ancient supernovae where these grains formed.