About 11.5 billion years ago, a distant star roughly 530 times larger than our sun died in a cataclysmic explosion that blew its outer layers of gas into the surrounding cosmos, a supernova documented by astronomers in blow-by-blow detail.
Researchers on Wednesday said NASA's Hubble Space Telescope managed to capture three separate images spanning a period of eight days starting just hours after the detonation - an achievement even more noteworthy considering how long ago and far away it occurred.
The doomed star, a type called a red supergiant, resided in a dwarf galaxy and exploded at the end of its relatively brief life span. The second image is from about two days later and the third from about six days after that. In these two images, the gaseous material ejected from the star is seen expanding outward. In the second image, the explosion is only a fifth as hot as in the first one. In the third image, it is only a tenth as hot as the first.
"The gravity in the galaxy cluster not only bends the light from behind it, but also delays the light travel time because the stronger the gravity, the slower a clock moves," Chen said. "In other words, emission of light from a single source behind the lens can go through multiple paths toward us, and we then see multiple images of the source."
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Hubble Spots a Fascinating Galactic Connection 200 Million Light-Years AwaySometimes it's tempting to imagine a supernatural hand behind the arrangement of celestial bodies.
Read more »
Hubble telescope reveals huge star's explosion in blow-by-blow detailAbout 11.5 billion years ago, a distant star roughly 530 times larger than our sun died in a cataclysmic explosion that blew its outer layers of gas into the surrounding cosmos, a supernova documented by astronomers in blow-by-blow detail. Researchers on Wednesday said NASA's Hubble Space Telescope managed to capture three separate images spanning a period of eight days starting just hours after the detonation - an achievement even more noteworthy considering how long ago and far away it occurred. The images were discovered in a review of Hubble observation archival data from 2010, according to astronomer Wenlei Chen, a University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.
Read more »
Right place, right time: Hubble captured a supernova as it explodedThree images captured the progression of the supernova just hours after the initial explosion.
Read more »
Astronomers saw a distant supernova less than 6 hours after it blew upThe Hubble Space Telescope has captured a distant star exploding earlier than ever before, allowing astronomers to watch the first eight days of a star’s violent death
Read more »
Bay Area sees lowest October home sales volume in 15 years - Silicon Valley Business JournalEconomic conditions in September and October continued to nosedive and so did real estate sales in the Bay Area. Here's how much they were down in October compared to the previous year.
Read more »
I’m too pretty to work — f–k getting up at 6 a.m. every day for 60 yearsForget 9 to 5, she’s a 10 out of 10. A young TikTokker is ready to give up work, saying she’s “too pretty” to bother with a job.
Read more »