A RUNAWAY WOLF-RAYET STAR AS THE ORIGIN OF {sup 26}Al IN THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM

Establishing the origin of the short-lived radionuclide (SLR) {sup 26}Al, which was present in refractory inclusions in primitive meteorites, has profound implications for the astrophysical context of solar system formation. Recent observations that {sup 26}Al was homogeneously distributed in the inner solar system prove that this SLR has a stellar origin. In this Letter, we address the issue of the incorporation of hot {sup 26}Al-rich stellar ejecta into the cold protosolar nebula. We first show that the {sup 26}Al atoms produced by a population of massive stars in an OB association cannot be injected into protostellar cores with enough efficiency. We then show that this SLR likely originated in a Wolf-Rayet star that escaped from its parent cluster and interacted with a neighboring molecular cloud. The explosion of this runaway star as a supernova probably triggered the formation of the solar system. This scenario also accounts for the meteoritic abundance of {sup 41}Ca.