For the first time, astronomers have captured stunning visual evidence that a star dies double.
The twin eruption was discovered by scientists studying two concentric rings of calcium surrounding SNR 0509-67.5, the remnants of the star that encountered an explosive endmise in the IA supernova centuries ago.
And the discoveries are more than just beautiful photographs. He said much of our knowledge of how the universe expands, a major debate, relies on reliably measuring this type of supernova. Scientists published their findings in the Nature Astronomy Journal on July 2nd.
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For these reasons, “the white dwarf explosion plays an important role in astronomy,” he said in a statement that he studied Priyam Dass, a graduate student at the University of Canberra, New South Wales, in Australia. “However, despite its importance, the long-standing puzzle of the exact mechanism that causes the explosion remains unsolved.”
Type IA supernovae occur when material from one star is stolen by the shell of a coordinate dead known as the White d star, leading to a massive thermonuclear explosion.
However, not all the ways in which a white dwarf explodes are explained. Astronomers assume that these white dwarves steadily rob the material of the next star, accumulating until they reach the critical mass (the limit of Chandrasekar), and until they explode. However, astronomers have found hints that this is not the only way the shell explodes.
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To search for direct evidence of different YPEs of explosions, the researchers pointed to a very large telescope at the European Southern Observatory on SNR 0509-67.5, a supernova that exhibits a clear shockwave shell pattern. Using the telescope’s multi-unit spectroscopic explorer equipment, we found two separate rings of calcium surrounding the debris of the explosion.
This “clearly shows that the white dwarves can explode quite a bit before they reach the famous Chandrasekhar mass, and that a “double abolition” mechanism actually occurs,” Ivo Seitenzahl, a nuclear astrophysicist at the University of Kamboura, New South Wales, said in a statement.
Researchers suggest that this white dwarf covers the blanket with helium stolen from his neighbor, then fires, sending shockwaves inwards, causing the nucleus of the dead star to blow away with the second, bigger explosion.
Studying this double explosion could have important implications for a broader understanding of the universe. No matter how it occurs, type IA supernova is always thought to explode at the same brightness, making it a “standard candle” where astronomers can measure far distances and calculate the expansion rate of the universe.
In recent years, this conflict measurement of expansion rate, known as the Hubble constant, has caused a major crisis in cosmology.
“This concrete evidence of double abolition not only contributes to solving the mysteries over the years, but also provides a visual view,” Das said. “It’s incredibly rewarding to reveal the inner workings of such an epic space explosion.”
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