Supernova

Ene 6 2022

La agonía de las supergigantes rojas

Por primera vez, los astrónomos han captado en tiempo real el dramático final de la vida de una supergigante roja. Observaron la rápida autodestrucción de una estrella masiva situada a 120 millones de años luz de la Tierra en la galaxia NGC 5731 y su agonía final antes de colapsar en una supernova de tipo II. Dirigido por investigadores de la Universidad Northwestern y la Universidad de California en Berkeley (UC Berkeley), el equipo observó la supergigante roja durante sus últimos 130 días antes de su fatal detonación. El descubrimiento, publicado en la revista Astrophysical Journal, contradice las ideas anteriores…

Space

Jul 16 2021

Supernova due to overeating

Actually, a type Ia supernova is pretty nasty. The star that will eventually perish has basically done everything right and ended its long, modest life as a white dwarf. As such, it could continue to watch its fellow stars burn up for many billions of years - longer than the universe is old - if it didn't have a younger partner that was still in the prime of its life. Because if material flows from this other star to our white dwarf, an overshooting reaction likes to happen. The (former) white dwarf can no longer cope with the inflowing…

Atomic nucleus swallows electrons: New supernova type found

Astrophysics

Jul 5 2021

Atomic nucleus swallows electrons: New supernova type found

At the end of its life, stars, if they are only heavy enough, perish in a gigantic firework, a supernova. Up to now, one knew roughly two ways to get there. A core-collapse supernova occurs when a massive star - one with more than 10 times the mass of the Sun - runs out of nuclear fuel and its iron core collapses, creating a black hole or neutron star. On the other hand, if a white dwarf - a low-mass star at the end of its lifetime - captures so much mass from a companion that it becomes unstable,…

Astrophysics

Abr 30 2020

Searching for the super supernova

A supernova is a powerful explosion at the end of the life of many stars. All massive stars with an initial mass greater than eight solar masses will eventually be torn apart by a supernova, but that fate also awaits smaller stars that are unlucky enough, after their actual end as a white dwarf, to accrete more material from a partner star, with which they form a binary system. Without supernovae, there would be no life, because it’s the only way heavy elements can be spread around the cosmos. On the whole, this process is understood. Particularly energetic supernovae,…