A baby supernova reveals information about how stars are born. Astronomers were thrilled to see the captures of this young supernova which might help them determine more about the formation of stars. After a few hours the star was born, it exploded. This could help scientists reveal more about massive such explosions.
- Astronomers were thrilled to capture a baby supernova only three hours after it was born.
- They say that in the past they were lucky to capture such an event after a few weeks after the explosion.
- A supernova forms when a massive star is out of energy and it explodes.
This astronomical object is a baby supernova which forms when a massive star is drained of energy and explodes. Supernovas usually shine so brightly that they can outshine all the other stars in their home galaxy. Previously, astronomers have seen glimpses of supernovas after they exploded, but they had never captured the shining light from a newborn supernova across so many wavelengths, including X-rays, visible light, and radio waves.
The new captures represent evidence indicating that dying stars may show their upcoming collapse by emitting detritus a few months before their deaths. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of questions to be answered regarding how these massive stars can explode so violently. Scientists have analyzed the last years from a star’s life which is close to exploding into a supernova could unveil details about how these explosions occur.
However, astronomers noted that there are few stars which reach this final, rare stage. Based on the study released by astronomers, it is very likely that no star out of the 100 billion to 400 billion ones in the Milky Way would be close to its death, transforming into a supernova. Surprisingly, scientists have captured a supernova three hours after it exploded.
The lead author of the study, Ofer Yaron, an astrophysicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, claimed that he together with his team managed to capture “the earliest spectra” which was ever taken when a supernova exploded. A light spectrum represents an accurate look at light’s wavelengths emitted by a celestial object.
Due to the fact that chemical substances can absorb particular wavelengths, scientists can use stellar spectra to unveil the composition of a star. Yaron argued that a few years ago scientists would have considered themselves incredibly lucky if they were to capture a supernova a week after it exploded. But now, they managed to see it after a few hours it formed.
Image courtesy of: pixabay
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