The last screams from a dying star’s light have been preserved in a series eerily beautiful images that slowly echo across the cosmos.
The Hubble Satellite Telescope has captured spectacularly the flashes of light that followed the supernova of a huge star in 2016, which spread outward over a period greater than five years.
This animation, which consists of stitches-together images, is rich in information about the evolution and dust around the supernova in Centaurus A.
“A good everyday analogy is to imagine the finale of a fireworks show – the bright burst of light from a shell at the end of the show will light up the smoke from earlier shells that is still lingering in the area,” Stephen Lawrence, an astronomerHofstra University, USA
“By looking at a series photographs over several minutes you can measure all kinds of information not directly related the explosion that is lighting up the scene. This includes how many shells have exploded previously, how opaque the smoke from a shell and how fast the wind was blowing.
Light echoes can be seen only from a distance. When something emits a flash of light, it radiates into space. The light will reflect if it encounters a barrier such as cosmic dust clouds or clouds. It is almost the same as a sound echo but with light. These light echoes can be used to aid. Map and understand spaceThe objects inside it.
Astronomers noticed a supernova in 2016 and returned to their host galaxy several times. Centaurus ATo see if changes could be observed over time, they were located 12 million light-years from Earth. It paid off. They were able not only to collect data on supernova’s fading lights, but they also named the supernova. SN 2016adjThey managed to capture its light echoes.
“The blast waves from the supernova explosion are racing outwards at more than 10,000 kilometers (more that 6,200 miles per second) Lluis Galabany, an AstronomerSpanish Institute of Space Sciences
“Ahead of the blastwave is an intense flash light emitted from the supernova. This is what causes the expanding rings you can see in these images. These cosmic explosions that produce heavy elements such carbon, oxygen, iron and other elements are very interesting.
Centaurus A is an oddball. It’s classified under the “anonymous” category. The elliptical galaxiesThese are oval-shaped, smooth galaxies that have very few stars and have very little dust. Centaurus A, however, is extremely dusty and bursting with starformation. It’s also kind of warped. These are all signs of a cosmically-recent collision with another galaxie, whose effects are still being felt.
According to some theories, the supernova’s light traveled through multiple clouds of dust as it approached Earth. We would see these as a series if rings growing in size from our position. The five-year observation period saw four distinct light echos. These were four dust clouds that were large enough and dense to produce light echos.
These light echos allowed researchers, led in part by Maximilian Stritzinger from Aarhus University in Denmark to map the dust surrounding the supernova. The researchers found that dusty structures are filled with a material too dense to emit a visible light echo.
We’re excited to finally see Centaurus A, a JWST image. The mysterious heart of the galaxyThe research shows that Hubble still holds the title of king for some observations. Hubble, which has been in space since decades, has been able capture a multiyear observation that provides detailed data about the structure and composition of another galaxy.
“The data set is amazing and allowed us to produce extremely impressive colored images or animations that demonstrate the evolution in the light echos over a five year period.” Stritzinger says. It is a rare phenomenon that was previously only seen in a few supernovae.
The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
