Today’s Solutions: November 14, 2024

In a world-first, astronomers have recorded the earliest moments of a supernova — the powerful explosion of a massive star — in unprecedented detail. The observation is a celebratory moment in the world of astronomy that could help improve our knowledge about what happens to stars the moment they die.

The astrophysicists behind the study used data captured by NASA’s Kepler space telescope in 2017, recording the initial light burst from a supernova as a shockwave blasted its way through a star. According to the researchers, the star that exploded was likely a yellow supergiant, which is more than 100 times bigger than our sun.

The initial brightening phase of a supernova has never been fully observed before, said Patrick Armstrong, a Ph.D. student at the Australian National University and the study’s first author. “In order to capture this, you have to be looking at the right part of the sky, at the right time, with the right amount of detail, to be able to see everything,” said Armstrong.

The supernova, named SN2017jgh, was more than one billion light-years away, meaning that the light observed by the telescope was actually one billion years old. A supernova explodes rapidly but it can take months to brighten and then eventually dim, while the early explosion is observable for only a few days.

As reported by The Guardian, the researchers made the discovery based on a “shock cooling light curve,” which measured the change in the amount of light emitted by the supernova over time.

“We see in the night sky this tiny point of light get brighter and brighter … as the supernova explodes, and [then] get dimmer,” said Armstrong. “This is the first time we’ve ever seen the shock cooling light curve in complete detail.”

According to Armstrong, the observation helped scientists to better understand what stars explode into different supernovae. “Normally we can’t get much information about these stars because they have exploded and there’s not much left to look at.”

Study source: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietySN2017jgh – A high-cadence complete shock cooling lightcurve of a SN IIb with the Kepler telescope

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Two Black women to serve together in the United States Senate in a historic f...

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For the first time in American history, two Black women will serve together in the Senate. Angela Alsobrooks, ...

Read More

Resilient community-building: staying safe in times of uncertainty

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY TEAM Recent global and domestic developments have left many feminists and allies feeling uneasy, uncertain about their place in society, ...

Read More

3 lifestyle hacks to help you become a little happier

There is no one path to finding happiness, but there are some lifestyle changes you can make to become more receptive to happiness. Without ...

Read More

For the first time ever, Greece meets energy demands with 100% renewables

The other week, Greece celebrated an exciting milestone! All of the country’s electricity needs were met by renewable energy for the first time, as ...

Read More