As our telescopes become more powerful, we're seeing many spectacular sights out in space, but there's a new contender for the most exciting one yet: According to researchers, we've observed a red supergiant star exploding into a supernova for the first time.
The demise of a star 120 million light-years away from Earth in the NGC 5731 galaxy resulted in the creation of the massive Supernova, which was watched for 130 days before it exploded.
The team says that this unprecedented look at one of the most fascinating and large-scale events in the Universe shows that there isn't always a calm before the storm.
The study's lead author says it's a breakthrough in understanding what massive stars do before they die.
Pre-super nova activity in a red supergiant star has never been observed before in an ordinary type II supernova. We watched a red supergiant star explode for the first time.
When massive stars die, or run out of fuel, no longer keep the forces of gravity and nuclear reactions in balance, there is a nova. A giant, super-bright explosion follows the collapse, sending shock waves through space and usually leaving a dense core surrounded by a cloud of gas called a nebula.
This process has never been seen in real time before. The University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy Pan-STARRS on Haleakal, Maui, and the WM Keck Observatory on Hawaii Island were involved in making the observations.
New insights are already provided by the collected data. There was evidence of dense circumstellar material surrounding the star when it exploded, which the researchers think was the same gas they had spotted being ejected from the red supergiant several months before.
"It's like watching a bomb go off," says Margutti, an astronomer from UC Berkeley. "We have never confirmed violent activity in a dying red supergiant star where we see it produce a glowing emission, then collapse and explode, until now."
It seems as though some red supergiants undergo significant internal changes before they transform into supernovas, and possibly instabilities linked to the final stages of nuclear fuel burning, creating the violent eruptions and luminosity observed in this case.
Astronomers were able to see this star because of the high level of light. Astronomers got more data to work with after the explosion because the supernova was monitored for another 300 days.
The observations were made as part of a project to find stellar explosions in the night sky. It should be easier to spot a supernova event with the new information available.
"I am most excited by all of the new unknowns that have been unlocked by this discovery," says Jacobson-Galn. The discovery of more events like SN 2020tlf will impact how we define the final months of stellar evolution, unifying observers and theorists in the quest to solve the mystery on how massive stars spend the final moments of their lives.
The research has been published.
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