Download Champagne Supernova
Rebecca Astrup
This Space T Larada features a unique "Champagne Supernova" finish - a champagne base with gold flakes reflecting an Oasis of light. This nitro cellulose finish features checking lines, as well as some light relic'ing to complement the age cracks.
An international team of astronomers led by a group at the University of Toronto has discovered a supernova more massive than previously believed possible. This has experts rethinking our basic understanding of how stars explode as supernovae, according to a paper to be published in Nature on September 21.
University of Toronto postdoctoral researcher Andy Howell, lead author of the study, identified a Type Ia supernova named SNLS-03D3bb in a distant galaxy 4 billion light years away that originated from a dense evolved star, termed a 'white dwarf,' whose mass is far larger than any previous example. Type Ia supernovae are thermonuclear explosions that destroy carbon-oxygen white dwarf stars that have accreted matter from a companion star.
Current understanding is that Type Ia supernova explosions occur when the mass of a white dwarf approaches 1.4 solar masses, or the Chandrasekhar limit. This important limit was calculated by Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1930, and is founded on well-established physical laws. As such, decades of astrophysical research have been based upon the theory. Yet, somehow the star that went supernova as SNLS-03D3bb reached about two solar masses before exploding.
The team speculates that there are at least two possible explanations for how this white dwarf got so fat before it exploded. One is that the original star was rotating so fast that centrifugal force kept gravity from crushing it at the usual limit. Another is that the blast was in fact the result of two white dwarfs merging, such that the body was only briefly more massive than the Chandrasekhar limit before exploding. Observations of the supernova were obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope and the Keck telescope, both located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
Since Type Ia supernovae usually have about the same brightness, they can be used to map distances in the universe. In 1998 they were used in the surprising discovery that the universe is accelerating. While the authors are confident that the discovery of a supernova that doesn't follow the rules does not undermine this result, it will make them more cautious about using them in the future.
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