A new image taken by a camera designed to study dark matter has revealed the remnants of an ancient supernova explosion in unprecedented detail.
Image taken by Dark energy camera On the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 13.2-foot (4-meter) telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, sparse, tendril-like clouds of dust and gas appear scattered around Supernovacentral point.
These torn pieces encircle an area larger than the apparent size of the full moon between the constellations Circinus and Centaurs in the southern sky. The single cloud, known to astronomers as objects RCW86it is believed to be material from A a star which exploded more than 1,800 years ago with such ferocity that it caught the attention of ancient Chinese astronomers and historians.
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The ancient Chinese dubbed the “search star” for its temporary nature Supernova, known today officially as SN 185, was spotted in 185 AD (hence the name) and faded over the course of eight months. Astronomers now know that the 8000th event occurred light years away in the direction in which it is located sunStar’s closest sibling, the triple star Alpha CentauriLocated.
With its ability to see much of the sky at the same time without compromising on the level of detail, the Dark Energy Camera provided astronomers with “a rare view of the entire supernova remnant as we see it today,” NSF NOIRLab, which published the image Wednesday (March 1), said in a statement. a statement (Opens in a new tab).
Astronomers hope that this new, deeper look at the object will help them better reveal the puzzling physics that led to the explosion that originated so long ago.
While today astronomers agree that RCW 86 is a remnant from supernova SN 185, that wasn’t always the case. Scientists have long believed that the volume of crust was too large to be produced in that eruption.
Calculations from previous studies estimated that it would take 10,000 years for material to disperse away from the dead star. In 2006, astronomers found evidence that the crust was evolving at a much faster rate than they had originally thought. Recently, Observations made by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope revealed Large amounts of iron in the material, which led astronomers to conclude that the explosion that produced RCW 86 must be the most active type of supernova, the kind that occurs when a white dwarf star, the dense remnant of a sun-like star, consumes an orbiting companion.
These types of supernovae, known as Type Ia supernovae, produce so much light that this phenomenon would not go unnoticed even in the distant past when astronomers limited their observations to the naked eye.
“This supernova is the brightest ever recorded, and there is no doubt that SN 185 would have spooked observers as it shone brightly across the night sky,” the researchers wrote in the statement.
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