Pair of Colliding Stars Spill Radioactive Molecules into Space
Monday, July 30, 2018 - 10:31
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers have made the first definitive detection of a radioactive molecule in interstellar space: a form, or isotopologue of aluminum monofluoride (26AlF). The new data - made with ALMA and the NOEMA radio telescopes - reveal that this radioactive isotopologue was ejected into space by the collision of two stars, a tremendously rare cosmic event that was witnessed on Earth as a "new star," or nova, in the year 1670.