Finding the origin of the explosive object that caused the universe to evolve dramatically

A multinational research team has discovered the origin of extremely rare "space bombs": Type Ic supernovae.

Work led by astronomers Martín Solar and Michał Michałowski of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland has found that the precursor to type Ic supernovae – the universe's premier metal forges – is not a solitary monster.

According to Science Alert, one of the greatest mysteries of the universe is the true origin of all metals.

They did not exist immediately after the Big Bang. The universe was then composed of only the lightest elements, hydrogen and helium.

A supernova explosion helps enrich the universe with chemical elements - (Photo: ESO/SCITECH DAILY).

The cores of stars are the forges of the universe , where simple elements are forged into heavier elements under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure.

When a star dies, it explodes as a supernova, releasing a bellyful of metals much heavier than what it was made of into space, providing the raw material for future generations of stars to forge even heavier things.

Among them, the type Ic supernova was the explosion of one of the most advanced forges. 

They are caused by the core collapse of massive stars that have reached the end of their lives, with all the hydrogen in the star's core having fused into heavier elements.

The star has then reached a point where its core elements are so heavy that further fusions will require more energy than previous mergers have released.

This sudden lack of energy causes the external pressure to drop so low that the core of the star is subjected to extreme gravitational forces and collapses into an extremely dense neutron star or black hole.

Meanwhile, the outer part of the star will explode into space, but it will be accompanied by hydrogen and helium - the basic elements that every star must have.

But type Ic supernovae have puzzled scientists for years because they explode without hydrogen and helium.

Now scientists have discovered that this type of supernova may have been created by something so powerful that as the material was ejected, heavier metals continued to be forged, blowing away all the hydrogen and helium.

There are possible scenarios given.

1. The first scenario involves a star about 20-30 times the mass of the Sun, large enough to generate a stellar wind strong enough to blow away hydrogen and helium.
2. The second scenario is the appearance of a binary companion, a type Ic supernova - a pair of exploding stars, consisting of a giant star and a smaller one with a mass of 8-15 times that of the Sun.

The researchers looked at the molecular gas left behind by type Ic supernovae and compared it to the molecular gas left behind by type II supernovae — which originate from stars 8-15 times more massive than the Sun.

The results show that the second scenario is plausible.

The discovery provides an important piece of the cosmological puzzle. Without the "monsters" that helped the universe evolve chemically so quickly, the Earth itself would not have been able to form 4.54 billion years ago with such a rich composition.