Herschel Finds Evidence for Stellar Wind Particles in a Protostellar Envelope: Is This What Happened to the Young Sun?

There is evidence that the young Sun emitted a high flux of energetic ( 10 MeV) particles. The collisions of these particles with the material at the inner edge of the Protosolar Nebula disk induced spallation reactions that formed short-lived radionuclei, like 10Be, whose trace is now visible in some meteorites. However, it is poorly known exactly when this happened, and whether and how it affected the solar system. Here, we present indirect evidence for an ejection of energetic particles in the young protostar, OMC-2 FIR 4, similar to that experienced by the young solar system. In this case, the energetic particles collide with the material in the protostellar envelope, enhancing the abundance of two molecular ions, HCO+ and N2H, whose presence is detected via Herschel observations. The flux of energetic particles at a distance of 1 AU from the emitting source, estimated from the measured abundance ratio of HCO+ and N2H, can easily account for the irradiation required by meteoritic observations. These new observations demonstrate that the ejection of 10 MeV particles is a phenomenon occurring very early in the life of a protostar, before the disappearance of the envelope from which the future star accretes. The whole envelope is affected by the event, which sets constraints on the magnetic field geometry in the source and opens up the possibility that the spallation reactions are not limited to the inner edge of the Protosolar Nebula disk.