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Showing results for tags 'supernova'.
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Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a companion star to a rare type of supernova. The discovery confirms a long-held theory that the supernova, dubbed SN 1993J, occurred inside what is called a binary system, where two interacting stars caused a cosmic explosion. SN 1993J is an example of a Type IIb supernova, unusual stellar explosions that contains much less hydrogen than found in a typical supernova. Astronomers believe the companion star took most of the hydrogen surrounding the exploding main star and continued to burn as a super-hot helium star. SN 1993J resides in the Messier 81 galaxy, about 11 million light-years away in the direction of Ursa Major, the Great Bear constellation. Since its discovery 21 years ago, scientists have been looking for the companion star. Observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, suggested that the missing companion star radiated large amounts of ultraviolet (UV) light, but the area of the supernova was so crowded that scientists could not be sure they were measuring the right star. Source -
NASA presented the image of a nebula generated by the material ejected from a star that exploded and became supernova called " The Hand of God." This is the first time a high definition image is captured, where we see the extended fingers and thumb object at about 17 thousand light years from Earth and discovered in the 80s. The X-ray picture was captured by the telescope NuSTAR Address Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA scientists are not sure if the ejected material has taken the shape of a hand or whether its interaction with the particles of the pulsar wind nebula makes it look that way. "We do not know if the image of the hand is an optical illusion," said Hongjun An McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in a statement of the NuSTAR mission. NuSTAR scientists hope the image helps provide insight into the phenomenon of black holes and how they grow and interact with the galaxies.
