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This is among the earliest supernovae caught after detonation, and it is the earliest for which spectra have been obtained, beginning six hours after the actual explosion. The star is located in a spiral galaxy named NGC 7610, 160 million light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus. [37] [38]
Once a star like the Sun has exhausted its nuclear fuel, its core collapses into a dense white dwarf and the outer layers are expelled as a planetary nebula. Stars with around ten or more times the mass of the Sun can explode in a supernova as their inert iron cores collapse into an extremely dense neutron star or black hole.
The major unsolved problem with Type II supernovae is that it is not understood how the burst of neutrinos transfers its energy to the rest of the star producing the shock wave which causes the star to explode. From the above discussion, only one percent of the energy needs to be transferred to produce an explosion, but explaining how that one ...
The star system, located 3,000 light-years from Earth and typically too dim to be seen with the naked eye, is expected to reach a level of brightness similar to that of Polaris, or the North Star.
Simulated collision of two neutron stars. A stellar collision is the coming together of two stars [1] caused by stellar dynamics within a star cluster, or by the orbital decay of a binary star due to stellar mass loss or gravitational radiation, or by other mechanisms not yet well understood.
Since neutrinos are generated in the core of a supernova, they play a crucial role in the star's collapse and explosion. [7] Neutrino heating is believed to be a critical factor in supernova explosions. [1] Therefore, observation of neutrinos from supernovae provides detailed information about core collapse and the explosion mechanism. [8]
The star explodes violently and releases a shock wave in which matter is typically ejected at speeds on the order of 5,000–20,000 km/s, roughly 6% of the speed of light. The energy released in the explosion also causes an extreme increase in luminosity.
In a worst-case scenario, if the flare also spawns a supersize coronal mass ejection that happens to be aimed at Earth, it could cause a violent geomagnetic storm, inducing electric currents that ...