Supernova

Gli spasimi di morte delle supergiganti rosse Astrophysics

Gli spasimi di morte delle supergiganti rosse

Per la prima volta, gli astronomi hanno ripreso in tempo reale la drammatica fine della vita di una supergigante rossa. Hanno osservato la rapida autodistruzione di una stella massiccia situata a 120 milioni di anni luce dalla Terra nella galassia NGC 5731 e le sue ultime fasi di morte prima di collassare in una supernova di tipo II. Guidato da ricercatori della Northwestern University e dell'Università della California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), il team ha osservato la supergigante rossa durante i suoi ultimi 130 giorni prima della sua detonazione fatale. La scoperta, pubblicata sull'Astrophysical Journal, contraddice le idee precedenti su come…
Supernova due to overeating Space

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

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,…
Searching for the super supernova Astrophysics

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,…