Astronomers Think They've Figured Out How to Predict When a Supernova Will Occur

A group of researchers from Japan submitted a study to High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena that discussed strategies to observe and possibly predict an explosion from Local Type II and Galactic supernovae.

The study could help us understand how and when supernovae could occur throughout the universe.

It's important to detect supernovae before they happen.

The lead author of the study is an astronomer at the Research Center for the Early Universe at the University of Tokyo.

What happens at the end of a massive star's life is a mystery. Recent observational works suggest that the standard theory of stellar evolution isn't accurate.

The paper claims that future observations can help deepen our understanding of stellar evolution. It would allow a very early alert of a near-future SN and help extend the available time frame to coordinate multi-messenger observations.

The researchers used the open-source code CHIPS to create a theoretical model for a discharge from a red supergiant star.

The star Betelguese, which was observed to dim in brightness in the middle of the year, is a red supergiant star.

Betelguese won't explode for another 100,000 years according to a study. What effects could this research have on Betelguese?

"Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, which is exactly the type of star we have studied in this paper," said Tsuna. If Betelgeuse exploded soon, it could show this kind of emission just before the SN. Since Betelgeuse is very close to us, there is a chance that neutrinos will be detected early. Even before the explosion, we can do multi-messenger astronomy.

The study states that the eruption light curves can be seen for a few days, followed by a long cooling discharge lasting hundreds of days.

This period is followed by a dim peak period fueled by what is known as the bound envelope pulling back.

The study concludes that mass eruptions events can serve as early warning of a near future nearby SN, which will be important for multi-messenger studies.

"One thing I would stress is that we have a bright future to detect these kinds of rather dim precursors."

The Rubin Observatory would conduct surveys much deeper in the future. It can be used to investigate the end stages of a massive star's life.

This article was published in the past. The original article is worth a read.