Ultraviolet Glow Betrays Impending Supernova [News]

In the latest in a series of supernova firsts, scientists report in Science that they pinpointed a star that flared in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum for several hours before blowing itself apart in a supernova. The researchers believe the finding represents the earliest visible sign of an imminent supernova--a surge in temperature as the expanding internal shock wave strains to break free of the star but has yet to shred it apart.A type II supernova, or stellar explosion, occurs when a star of at least eight times our sun's mass runs out of nuclear fuel at its core. Without nuclear energy to puff it up, its massive gravity causes the core to implode, producing a shock wave that rips through the star's outer layer and finally blows it apart, releasing a flood of x-rays. But researchers believe that the first sign of death would actually be the heating of the star's surface as the expanding shock wave sends out hot radiation ahead of it. [More]

Read the whole article on Scientific American

More from Scientific American

Related