Posts Tagged supernovas
A Supernova in Two Wavelengths
This is an unusual image, a mix of visible light (red) and X-rays (green). It reminds me of a water opal:
Where’s the other star? At the center of this supernova remnant should be the companion star to the star that blew up. Identifying this star is important for understanding just how Type Ia supernova detonate, which in turn could lead to a better understanding of why the brightness of such explosions are so predictable, which in turn is key to calibrating the entire nature of our universe. The trouble is that even a careful inspection of the center of SNR 0509-67.5 has not found any star at all. This indicates that the companion is intrinsically very faint — much more faint that many types of bright giant stars that had been previous candidates. In fact, the implication is that the companion star might have to be a faint white dwarf, similar to — but less massive than — the star that detonated. SNR 0509-67.5 is shown above in both visible light, shining in red as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, and X-ray light, shown in false-color green as imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Putting your cursor over the picture will highlight the central required location for the missing companion star.
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Hughes et al., Optical: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI /AURA)
Going Supernova
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech
My penchant for artist-renditions means I couldn’t possibly pass up posting this, an artist’s rendition of a smothered supernova:
While searching the skies for black holes using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers discovered a giant supernova that was smothered in its own dust. In this artist’s rendering, an outer shell of gas and dust — which erupted from the star hundreds of years ago — obscures the supernova within. This event in a distant galaxy hints at one possible future for the brightest star system in our own Milky Way.
Ornamental
Around this time of year, Hubble releases a holiday-themed image. I don’t think they can top last year’s Christmas tree, but this holiday ornament is still very beautiful and festive!
A delicate sphere of gas, photographed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, floats serenely in the depths of space. The pristine shell, or bubble, is the result of gas that is being shocked by the expanding blast wave from a supernova. Called SNR 0509-67.5 (or SNR 0509 for short), the bubble is the visible remnant of a powerful stellar explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small galaxy about 160,000 light-years from Earth.
Ripples in the shell’s surface may be caused by either subtle variations in the density of the ambient interstellar gas, or possibly driven from the interior by pieces of the ejecta. The bubble-shaped shroud of gas is 23 light-years across and is expanding at more than 11 million miles per hour (5,000 kilometers per second).
Astronomers have concluded that the explosion was one of an especially energetic and bright variety of supernovae. Known as Type Ia, such supernova events are thought to result from a white dwarf star in a binary system that robs its partner of material, takes on much more mass than it is able to handle, and eventually explodes.
Supernova
According to APOD, this is “a supernova that occurred in 1994 on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy.” The picture is neat. Look at it. (Sorry, it’s Labor Day. How much effort do you expect?)
Friday Picspam, part 7
Above, yesterday’s APOD in beautiful shades of blue; below, today’s NASA Image of the Day in beautiful shades of trippy-reflection-of-shuttle-controls.
Hyperion looks like a sponge. If they sold Hyperion-brand dish sponges, I’d buy ‘em. I admit it.
Colors in image below are less visible than they appear. Still, I like it:
Finally, if you haven’t seen Lunch Bag Art, you’re really missing out; he featured the new Star Trek movie on May 11:
Violent Mass of Gas
Posted by Danielle in Perspectives on March 11, 2009
A Hubble Heritage release from 2005:
A violent and chaotic-looking mass of gas and dust is seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby supernova remnant. Denoted N 63A, the object is the remains of a massive star that exploded, spewing its gaseous layers out into an already turbulent region.
Bright Star
Posted by Danielle in Perspectives on August 7, 2008
This supernova remnant was featured on APOD on July 4 — quite appropriate for a fireworks-ridden evening! A colorful bubble marks the spot….
A new star, likely the brightest supernova in recorded human history, lit up planet Earth’s sky in the year 1006 AD. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion, found in the southerly constellation of Lupus, still puts on a cosmic light show across the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, this composite view includes X-ray data in blue from the Chandra Observatory, optical data in yellowish hues, and radio image data in red. Now known as the SN 1006 supernova remnant, the debris cloud appears to be about 60 light-years across and is understood to represent the remains of a white dwarf star. Part of a binary star system, the compact white dwarf gradually captured material from its companion star. The buildup in mass finally triggered a thermonuclear explosion that destroyed the dwarf star. Because the distance to the supernova remnant is about 7,000 light-years, that explosion actually happened 7,000 years before the light reached Earth in 1006. Shockwaves in the remnant accelerate particles to extreme energies and are thought to be a source of the mysterious cosmic rays.
Vela Supernova Remnant
Posted by Danielle in Perspectives on July 31, 2008
This image of the Vela Supernova Remnant was featured on APOD in March. What transfixes me is the spectacular colors in this image; the ripe raspberry reds, the bright blues. It’s simply marvelous.
The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs through this complex and beautiful skyscape. At the northwestern edge of the constellation Vela (the Sails) the 16 degree wide, 30 frame mosaic is centered on the glowing filaments of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the supernova explosion that created the Vela remnant reached Earth about 11,000 years ago. In addition to the shocked filaments of glowing gas, the cosmic catastrophe also left behind an incredibly dense, rotating stellar core, the Vela Pulsar. Some 800 light-years distant, the Vela remnant is likely embedded in a larger and older supernova remnant, the Gum Nebula. The broad mosaic includes other identified emission and reflection nebulae, star clusters, and the remarkable Pencil Nebula.
A Space Ribbon
Posted by Danielle in Perspectives on July 10, 2008
A Hubble Heritage release from the 1st, this red ribbon in space is actually a supernova remnant:
A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago.
This image is a composite of hydrogen-light observations taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys in February 2006 and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations in blue, yellow-green, and near-infrared light taken in April 2008. The supernova remnant, visible only in the hydrogen-light filter was assigned a red hue in the Heritage color image.
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About Silver Rockets
This blog celebrates space exploration, human spaceflight and the heavens, through lots and lots ofimages.
My name is Danielle Signor, and I am a space cadet. STS-133 NASA Tweetup Attendee!
This is a blog, NOT A SHOP. Click the images for their source or purchase link, if available.
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