‘It's very exciting' – first images of double supernova captured by team including Trinity College astronomer
The astronomers viewed what's left of supernova SNR 0509-67.5 – which exploded centuries ago – using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert.
They saw two shells – or layers – of calcium still remained and appear blue in the captured images.
The double explosion was predicted, theoretically, by Christine Collins – a Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellow in the School of Physics at TCD – before it was observed.
'I was involved with the work that made this prediction,' said Dr Collins. 'It's very exciting to be part of this discovery.
'The prediction that these explosions leave behind the distinct calcium shell signature came directly out of the simulations, although we didn't realise at the time that it would be a feature that could be observed in a supernova remnant.'
An international team of astronomers from Australia, Germany, Switzerland, the US, Canada and Ireland set out to test the theory that a double detonation was possible in a white dwarf star.
This theory proposed that the white dwarf – the core of a dying star left behind after it's used up its nuclear fuel – would gather helium from a companion star, become unstable, then explode.
Very strong evidence that this supernova was triggered by a double detonation
The shockwaves from that first explosion would then trigger a second detonation of the white dwarf, which would produce a supernova with two circular shells of calcium left as stellar imprints and visual evidence of each explosion.
'This is very strong evidence that this supernova was triggered by a double detonation,' Dr Collins said.
Dr Collins had predicted that the existence of at least some type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) could be best explained by a double detonation. 'It is a very nice case where we had a theoretical prediction and then the signature was identified in observations,' Dr Collins added.
The observed confirmation that a white dwarf suffered two explosive blasts is a discovery that sheds new light on stellar explosions.
The SNe Ia is a subclass of supernova that results from white dwarfs exploding.
They are considered important for a general understanding of the universe because they are predictably bright, no matter how far away they are from us. They help astronomers to measure distances in space.
This was how astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe was accelerating – a finding that was the basis for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011.
Type Ia supernovae are also viewed as important by astronomers because they are the primary source of iron in the universe – even in human blood.
Yet, despite their importance, the puzzle of what exactly caused them remained unsolved, until now.
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