Witness the supernova explosion that seems to be only in sci-fi movies
A recent observation using the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) has helped astrophysicists discover a new supernova explosion crashing into its companion star.
The phenomenon that seemed to be only in this sci-fi film recently came true.
A recent observation using the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) has helped astrophysicists discover a new supernova explosion crashing into its companion star. They also saw the deep blue light in great detail from the collision.
This observation is a significant advance in the network of telescopes that are interconnected and operated automatically, revealing many unknown things about mysterious stars. The collisions between them are still the subject of controversy over the past 50 years.
The most common hypothesis in recent years has been that supernovae occur when two white dwarfs approach and merge.
This new study shows that stars that die when colliding with active stars are not white dwarfs, because white dwarfs are just the dead star of the Sun-like stars.
'This is what we're always looking for, since 2010, we've predicted that a supernova will collide with an active star. We have collected many important details in the past, and this observation is an undeniable proof , "said researcher Griffin Hosseinzadeh, the study's lead author.
Only 55 million light-years from Earth, 2017 cbv is one of our closest supernova discovered in recent years.(Image: University of California, Santa Barbara).
The observed supernova , called SN 2017cbv , is a type Ia supernova supernova , used by astronomers to measure the acceleration of the universe.
This supernova is thought to be an explosion of white dwarfs after death, and astronomers suspect there must be a companion star to cause them to explode.
This observation shows that a white dwarf takes a large part of the material from a companion star that has a radius 20 times greater than the Sun, providing more material to create a supernova explosion of a white dwarf.
The collision between the supernova and the accompanying star causes a sudden increase in material density, causing it to overheat and create an explosion of ultra-violet blue and white light. Such an explosion can only be formed by supernova taking material from its companion star.
'The universe has become a crazy place when fictional things of fiction writers come true. We now know that supernovae can also destroy nearby stars to gain energy for their explosions, " said Andy Howell, a scientist at LCO and a doctor at Hosseinzadeh.
The co-author of the study, Professor David Sand of the University of Arizona, discovered the supernova on March 10, 2017 in galaxy NGC 5643 , 55 million light-years away. SN 2017cbv is one of the most recently discovered supernovae in the findings surveyed in a distance of less than 120 million light-years.
Within minutes of discovering the explosion, Sand quickly activated the global LCO system of 18 electronic telescopes located on both sides of the hemisphere, allowing researchers to observe objects immediately and almost continuously.
'With the LCO's observation capabilities every few hours apart, we can see the whole cycle increasing the brightness of the blue light emitted by the explosion. Traditional telescopes can only be observed at a particular moment, not continuously , " Howell added.
This finding is not very prominent, but it gives astronomers a whole new perspective on a part of the universe.
"These things we never thought about in the past few years, but now we have seen it with our own eyes and have gradually come to uncover the mysteries of hacking supernova explosions ," Howell said.
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