The study, presented recently in the publication Nature Physics, allows you to see the most complete picture of the first ten hours of a supernova that exploded about 160 million light-years from Earth.
For the first time, scientists have shown the most complete model of the process taking place in a giant star, whose life cycle is coming to an end. Taken just six to ten hours after the start of a supernova explosion, images of the stellar material surrounding the star reveal the mystery of what happens to the supergiant during its final year.
It is believed that stars can burn for billions of years, but predicting when one or another of them will explode is almost impossible. However, new technologies such as the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) offer a fresh perspective on the problem.
“Until a few years ago, it was considered early to catch a supernova even a week after the explosion,” said lead author Ofer Yaron in an interview with ResearchGate.
Thanks to a PTF camera that scans a tenth of the sky every night looking for new flares, astronomers are now able to 'catch' supernovae in the early days of the explosion. Such glimpses in the first minutes have been captured before, but never in such detail.
The pursuit of excellence came after an international team of researchers, using an automated computer program, noticed the flickering of light in the galaxy NCG 7610 on October 6, 2013. A computer transferred images from the Palomar Observatory to the Weizmann Institute in Israel. The supernova was confirmed, and scientists around the world began work.
Researcher Dan Pereli of the California Institute of Technology made four detailed observations within six to ten hours after the supernova was discovered, as confirmed by astronomers from Spain and Australia in the following days and months, according to The Washington Post.
By working together, astronomers were able to capture the earliest images in a wide range of spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays. In their opinion, the new information will help them better understand how and why massive stars explode like supernovae (the question remains open in astrophysics).
