NASA observatory uncovers youngest ever supernova

by Rich Bowden - May 15 2008, 00:16

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array have combined to discover the youngest supernova in the Milky Way galaxy.

Image: Supernova remnant G1.9+0.3. Image Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/NCSU/S. Reynolds et al.); Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/Cambridge/D. Green et al.)

At only 140 years old the supernova is younger than Cassiopeia A, the last known supernova in our galaxy which occurred around 1680. It had been missed by optical telescopes on Earth because it occurred close to the center of the galaxy and is embedded in a dense field of gas and dust, making it a trillion times fainter according to a NASA statement."We can see some supernova explosions with optical telescopes across half of the universe, but when they're in this murk we can miss them in our own cosmic backyard," said Stephen Reynolds of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who led the Chandra study."Fortunately, the expanding gas cloud from the explosion shines brightly in radio waves and X-rays for thousands of years. X-ray and radio telescopes can see through all that obscuration and show us what we've been missing," he said."Cas A had been the reigning youngest remnant for so long that it took a while to sink in that we had found something less than half its age," Reynolds said.Supernovas occur when a star explodes, causing a huge burst of radiation which can last several weeks or months. The explosion sends the star's material out at a tenth of the speed of light, causing a shockwave of gas and dust, known as a supernova remnant.David Green of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, who led the Very Large Array study, predicts there should be many more such supernovas."If the supernova rate estimates are correct, there should be the remnants of about 10 supernova explosions that are younger than Cassiopeia A," he said."It's great to finally track one of them down."

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NASA observatory uncovers youngest ever supernova

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