supernova

Laser technique to help find supernova

harminka — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:51:21 -0500

One single atom of a certain isotope of hafnium found on Earth would prove that a supernova once exploded near our solar system. The problem is how to find such an atom - among billions of others. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a laser technique that, in combination with standard techniques, may be able to do the job.

Cassiopeia A comes alive across time and space

harminka — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:11:03 -0600

Two new efforts have taken a famous supernova remnant from the static to the dynamic. A new movie of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows changes in time never seen before in this type of object. A separate team will also release a dramatic three-dimensional visualization of the same remnant.

Little bang triggered solar system formation

harminka — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:43:33 -0500

For several decades, scientists have thought that the Solar System formed as a result of a shock wave from an exploding star—a supernova—that triggered the collapse of a dense, dusty gas cloud that contracted to form the Sun and the planets.

Powerful Nearby Supernova Caught By Web

harminka — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:08:21 -0500

One of the nearest supernovas in the last 25 years has been identified over a decade after it exploded. This result was made possible by combining data from the vast online archives from many of the world's premier telescopes.

Supernova explosion is observed in real time

harminka — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:27:41 -0500

An ordinary observation with NASA’s Swift research satellite recently led to the first real-time sighting of a star in the process of exploding. Astronomers have surveyed thousands of these supernova explosions in the past, but their observations have always begun some time after the main event is underway.

New Star Systems First of Their Kind

harminka — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:59:35 -0500

Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today in Astrophysical Journal Letters that they have discovered a faraway binary star system that could be the progenitor of a rare type of supernova.

New research dives into details of supernova

harminka — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:53:22 -0500

Astronomers have made the best determination of the power of a supernova explosion long after it was visible from Earth. This technique, using X-ray and optical observations, may help reveal the details of how some stars come to a cataclysmic death.

Dirty space and supernovae

harminka — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:47:38 -0600

Interstellar space may be strewn with tiny whiskers of carbon, dimming the light of far-away objects. This discovery by scientists at the Carnegie Institution may have implications for the “dark energy” hypothesis, proposed a decade ago in part to explain the unexpected dimness of certain stellar explosions called Type1a supernovae.

Supernova remnants dance in the LMC

harminka — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:49:21 -0600

The Gemini South Multi-Object Spectograph (GMOS) recently captured a dramatic image of a vast cloud complex named DEM L316 located in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

How to make the brightest supernova ever

harminka — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:54:29 -0600

A supernova observed last year was so bright--about 100 times as luminous as a typical supernova--that it challenged the theoretical understanding of what causes supernovae.

Stellar forensics with striking new image from Chandra

harminka — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:58:25 -0500

A spectacular new image shows how complex a star’s afterlife can be. By studying the details of this image made from a long observation by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers can better understand how some stars die and disperse elements like oxygen into the next generation of stars and planets.

Stellar Firework in Whirlwind

harminka — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:26:48 -0500

Stars do not like to be alone. Indeed, most stars are members of a binary system, in which two stars circle around each other in an apparently never-ending cosmic ballet. But sometimes, things can go wrong. When the dancing stars are too close to each other, one of them can start devouring its partner. If the vampire star is a white dwarf – a burned-out star that was once like our Sun – this greed can lead to a cosmic catastrophe: the white dwarf explodes as a Type Ia supernova.