Eight years later, an explosion far out in space is still revealing secrets about the lives of stars

The stellar explosion that was discovered eight years ago is continuing to evolve even as scientists watch.

The results show how giant stars live and die.

A group led by the University of Texas at Austin published the study in The Astrophysical Journal.

The lives of people.

Astronomers saw a bright spot in the sky that was a sure sign that a star had exploded.

Astronomers around the world use telescopes to follow an exploding star as the light it gives off changes rapidly over time. Scientists can deduce the physical characteristics of the system by using telescopes that can see visible light and also X-rays, radio waves, and infrared light.

Scientists have grouped the exploding stars into categories by doing this many times. This particular event looked like a type Ib supernova. When the largest stars in the universe die, they are what happen.

Scientists think that there were two stars in the picture, one bigger than the other. The star's outer layer of hydrogen got sucked away as it evolved. It collapsed when it ran out of fuel.

In the first 500 days after the explosion, it was observed that it was emitting more X-rays, which was unusual and only seen in a small number of supernovae.

The group set out to collect all of the data on the star in order to fit it into a cohesive picture.

The pattern of increasing and decreasing was shown in the X-ray emissions. The optical light was measured by UT Austin's Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The radio signal showed that the shockwave was expanding at a very high rate, while the optical light showed a much slower speed.

The odd behavior was thought to be caused by a dense cloud of hydrogen around the two stars that were left over from earlier in their lives.

When the star exploded, it produced a shockwave that traveled at 67 million miles per hour in all directions. The cloud's behavior would be affected by how the cloud was shaped.

The cloud would be assumed to be spherical and symmetrical in the simplest model. The thicker part of the ring would slow down the shockwave, showing up in the optical light as slower- moving material. The water would hit a rock in the center of the river as seen in the radio waves.

The scientists said that the questions remain, but that they could account for the different speeds of the shockwave.

The study provided valuable clues as to the evolution of these stars and mass lost from these systems, and in a larger sense to the lives and deaths of these relatively mysterious stars.

The question of how massive stars lose their mass is a big scientific question, according to UT Austin professor and team member J. Craig Wheeler. Where is it? When was it ejected? By what process? We were going after the macro questions.

The event that turned out to be a really important one is illustrating the process.

The leader of the study was Benjamin Thomas. The University of Chicago had two researchers on the paper, one of which is now with the University of Palermo in Italy. See the paper for the full list of telescopes.

More information: Benjamin P. Thomas et al, Seven Years of SN 2014C: a Multi-Wavelength Synthesis of an Extraordinary Supernova. arXiv:2203.12747v1 [astro-ph.HE], arxiv.org/abs/2203.12747 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Citation: Eight years later, an explosion far out in space is still revealing secrets about the lives of stars (2022, April 30) retrieved 30 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-years-explosion-space-revealing-secrets.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.