Astronomers have discovered the brightest supernova – BBC Russian

Jonathan Amos Correspondent BBC BBC on Science

Image caption Supernova has a super-bright luminosity

The astronomers observed the most powerful ever recorded supernova explosion.

She first was seen in June last year, but still exudes enormous flow of energy.

At its peak the blast was 200 times more powerful than a typical supernova explosion. This celestial object luminaries 570 billion times brighter than the sun.

The astronomers believe that the explosion and the ongoing activity on the ground dying stars are stimulated by the presence of extremely dense and has a strong magnetic field of the object, called “magnetic stars”.

This facility, established at the beginning of the explosion of a supernova, a relatively small physical size and probably revolves with great speed – perhaps a thousand times a second.

He quickly slowed down and resets kinetic energy of rotation in the surrounding cloud of gas and dust, which arose as a result of explosion of a star.

The announcement of this was published in the journal Science.

Professor Christopher Kochenek from Ohio State University is part of a group of researchers , watching the behavior of this supernova.

“We believe that the object in the center of the cloud has a very compact size, apparently, it does not exceed the mass of our Sun, and the mass of stellar debris in which he throws his energy is Five or six solar masses. This cloud is expanding at a high speed, about 10 thousand kilometers per second, “- said the expert.

” The unusually long period of existence of this supernova due to the presence of this exotic object “, – said Christopher Kochenek.

Image copyright AP

Image caption It would look like this supernova in the sky of the planet, separated from it by 10 thousand light-years (Figure artist)

This superbright supernova is usually denoted by such objects, was discovered at a distance of 3.8 billion light years from Earth in the framework of automated supernova search ASAS-SN.

On the Cerro-Tololo Observatory in Chile a couple of telescopes equipped with long-focus apertures Nikon, watching the emergence of sudden flares in the sky . Their findings are then transferred to larger telescopes for detailed investigation.

The program ASAS-SN is to provide statistical data on the different types of supernovae and their distribution in space.

Supernovae generate explosions huge number of heavy elements, which can then serve as material for forming the next generation of stars. They also create shock waves impacting the interstellar gas and dust from which stars appear.

Perhaps the exploding star had a super-large size – its mass could at 50-100 times the mass of the sun.

Such supermassive stars rapidly lose their weight, and by the end of their useful life, this star was greatly reduced in size.

“At the time of the explosion the star had to be very small, not much larger than Earth,” – says Professor Kochanek.

“At the same time it had to be very hot – its surface temperature can reach 100 thousand degrees. She had to get rid of all their reserves of hydrogen and helium, and balance were materials that were transformed into carbon and oxygen “.

There are signs that this supernova should soon start to fade, and astronomers in the coming weeks will hold a session of its observations by a space telescope” Hubble “.

“We are talking about the explosion, and all the explosions ever end – said Professor Kochanek. – If it does not, our understanding of the mechanisms of supernovae will have to be reviewed. On the other hand, if the star will behave differently than we think it will be a truly unique place, extremely interesting for further study “.