Scientists Witness Star's Explosive End

Astronomers, For First Time, Observe Beginning Of Supernova

(AP)  In a stroke of cosmic luck, astronomers for the first time witnessed the start of one of the universe's most fiery events: the end of a star's life as it exploded into a supernova.

On Jan. 9, astronomers used a NASA X-ray satellite to spy on a star already well into its death throes, when another star in the same galaxy started to explode. The outburst was 100 billion times brighter than Earth's sun. The scientists were able to get several ground-based telescopes to join in the early viewing and the first results were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"It's like winning the astronomy lottery," said lead author Alicia Soderberg, an astrophysics researcher at Princeton University. "We caught the whole thing from start-to-finish on tape."

Another scientist, University of California at Berkeley astronomy professor Alex Filippenko, called it a "very special moment because this is the birth, in a sense, of the death of a star."

And what a death blast it is.

"As much energy is released in one second by the death of a star as by all of the other stars you can see in the visible universe," Filippenko said.

Less than 1 percent of the stars in the universe will die this way, in a supernova, said Filippenko, who has written a separate paper awaiting publication. Most stars, including our sun, will get stronger and then slowly fade into white dwarfs, what Filippenko likes to call "retired stars," which produce little energy.

The first explosion of this supernova can only be seen in the X-ray wave length. It was spotted by NASA's Swift satellite, which looks at X-rays, and happened to be focused on the right region, Soderberg said. The blast was so bright it flooded the satellite's instrument, giving it a picture akin to "pointing your digital camera at the sun," she said.

The chances of two simultaneous supernovae explosions so close to each other is maybe 1 in 10,000, Soderberg said. The odds of looking at them at the right time with the right telescope are, well, astronomical.

Add to that the serendipity of the Berkeley team viewing the same region with an optical light telescope. It took pictures of the star about three hours before it exploded.

This new glimpse of a supernova seems to confirm decades-old theories on how stars explode and die, not providing many surprises, scientists said. That makes the findings "a cool thing," but not one that fundamentally changes astrophysics, said University of California, Santa Cruz astrophysicist Stan Woosley, who wasn't part of the research.

The galaxy with the dual explosions is a run-of-the-mill cluster of stars, not too close and not too far from the Milky Way in cosmic terms, Soderberg said. The galaxy, NGC2770, is about 100 million light years away. One light year is 5.9 trillion miles.

The star that exploded was only about 10 million years old. It was the same size in diameter as the sun, but about 10 to 20 times more dense.

The death of this star went through stages, with the core getting heavier in successive nuclear reactions and atomic particles being shed out toward the cosmos, Filippenko said. It started out in its normal life with hydrogen being converted to helium, which is what is happening in our sun. The helium then converts to oxygen and carbon, and into heavier and heavier elements until it turns into iron.

That is when the star core becomes so heavy it collapses in on itself, and the supernova starts with a shock wave of particles piercing through the shell of the star, which is what the Soderberg team captured on x-rays.

[prairiefox1]

MARCH 19, 2018,,, THIS STORY WILL STILL BE RUNNING AS LATE NEWS!
EVERY DAY IT IS THE SAME OLE! NO MORE WILL IT BE CALLED CBS NEWS BUT AS CBS RANT!

[mitdgreenb]

Geez, CBS, please get your basic physics right. As a star processes elements, it actually gets LESS massive. Why? Particles and energy stream out of the star. (Yes, energy removes mass. Ask Einstein.)

What happens in a star is a blanace. Gravity wants to make the star collapse, but the star''s fusion creates so much energy that the matter in the star is pushed outward. These two forces balance and the star stays relatively the same size. Until the fuel is gone. Then gravity collapses the star. Increasing density lets the star start fusing heavier elements. Then that runs out and the cycle repeats. Eventually, one of the gravitational collapses sets off so much fusion that the star explodes... literally overcoming its own gravity to disassemble itself. Poof.

[rational_1]

This 10 million year old star actually exploded 100 million years ago. Explain that, oh wise biblical literalists. Speaking of which, where is singinrick (or whatever his latest screen name is) these days?
Posted by rf35 at 10:04 AM : May 22, 2008

Easy, the speed of light is not a constant. The creationists will tell you that constants are not really constants (with no proof of course!). That''s why all the dating tests are off so much and don''t come up with the dinos walking the Earth at 4004BC. Don''t you know? The astronomers, physicists, geophysicists, paleontologists, molecular biologists - they''re all wrong, the poor deluded fools. They''ve somehow stumbled onto an internally consistent set of theories that manage to disagree with the ultimate science textbook, the Bible. Pretty laughable, ain''t it?

[kkcbs]

Prelgovisk, that made my day -- FUNNY!

[rf35]

This 10 million year old star actually exploded 100 million years ago. Explain that, oh wise biblical literalists. Speaking of which, where is singinrick (or whatever his latest screen name is) these days? Did he get booted yet again or did he have to sell his computer to buy gas for his Suburban?

What I really want to know is how far the elements expelled by the supernova can go. How many solar systems can be seeded with the required elements for life from this?

[talkingham]

Let''s see at 30 miles a gallon, 600 trillion miles, that''s about 20 trillion gal times the Bush gas tax of $4/gal = it would cost me 60 trillion dollars more to drive to the supervnova than it did during Clinton''s last term as when he left office gas was less than a dollar a gal. thanks Bush.

[prelgovisk]

Umm...if my star explodes, can I get my money back from Star Registry?

[rational_1]

O.K. I''''ll say it first, Shrub''s fault.
Posted by dragonwagon5 at 07:17 PM : May 21, 2008

He''s finally mastered the Dark Side of the Force - not even Yoda can influence cosmic events 100 million lightyears away.

[downsteamjim]

It''s better to burn out than fade away. from Highlander