08-15-2019, 04:45 PM
A new type of supernova
A new breed of supernovae has been discovered with the use of the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea. Depending on their mass, supernovae are massive stars that collapse in on themselves through gravity when they exhaust their fuel. The collapse causes a massive explosion leaving the core of the star behind, which is so compressed it turns into a neutron star or a black hole.
A recent supernova, SN 2016iet, is very different. The original star was supermassive, about 200 solar masses and lacked metals, i.e., atoms heavier than hydrogen and helium. When it ran out of fuel, the collapse was so intense that matter-antimatter particle pairs were created which led to a massive explosion when they recombined blowing the star to pieces and leaving no core behind.
https://www.gemini.edu/node/21217
"A renegade star exploding in a distant galaxy has forced astronomers to set aside decades of research and focus on a new breed of supernova that can utterly annihilate its parent star — leaving no remnant behind. The signature event, something astronomers had never witnessed before, may represent the way in which the most massive stars in the Universe, including the first stars, die."
A new breed of supernovae has been discovered with the use of the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea. Depending on their mass, supernovae are massive stars that collapse in on themselves through gravity when they exhaust their fuel. The collapse causes a massive explosion leaving the core of the star behind, which is so compressed it turns into a neutron star or a black hole.
A recent supernova, SN 2016iet, is very different. The original star was supermassive, about 200 solar masses and lacked metals, i.e., atoms heavier than hydrogen and helium. When it ran out of fuel, the collapse was so intense that matter-antimatter particle pairs were created which led to a massive explosion when they recombined blowing the star to pieces and leaving no core behind.
https://www.gemini.edu/node/21217
"A renegade star exploding in a distant galaxy has forced astronomers to set aside decades of research and focus on a new breed of supernova that can utterly annihilate its parent star — leaving no remnant behind. The signature event, something astronomers had never witnessed before, may represent the way in which the most massive stars in the Universe, including the first stars, die."
