Astronomers observe birth of supernova for first time
by Rich Bowden - May 21 2008, 20:59
Astronomers witnessing the birth of an exploding star for the first time have seen a burst of X-rays as the star disintegrates. Image: Supernova SN2008D. Credit: NASA/Phillip Newman
A team of astronomers from Princeton University has witnessed the birth of a supernova for the very first time, giving the world a better understanding of one of the Universe's most spectacular and destructive processes.
A supernova is formed when a star run out of fuel and collapses in on itself to form an ultradense neutron star. The object collapses under its gravitational weight, exploding the star with the energy produced by the shockwave equal to that of trillions of nuclear bombs exploding simultaneously.
Astronomers though had only ever witnessed the immediate aftermath of the explosions, never catching the star in the act of exploding.
"For years we have dreamed of seeing a star just as it was exploding, but actually finding one is a once-in-a-lifetime, event," said Alicia Soderberg, a Hubble and Carnegie Princeton Fellow at Princeton University, whose findings are published in the journal Nature.
What Soderberg and her colleague saw four months ago while viewing the Lynx constellation was a series of extremely bright X-rays over a five-minute period which precedes the explosion of the super nova, now named SN 2008D.
Catching the supernova in the act of exploding will give scientists an insight into the birth of a supernova and provide a better understanding of the process of supernovas, said the team. Finding the birth of the exploding star was pure luck said Dr Soderberg who described the viewing as being "... in the right place, at the right time, with the right telescope."
Her colleague Princeton postdoctoral researcher Edo Berger said the team's witnessing of the X-ray blast confirmed previously held theories that a burst of X-rays precedes a supernova.
"Using the most powerful radio, optical and X-ray telescopes on the ground and in space, we were eventually able to observe the evolution of the explosion right from the start," Berger said. "This eventually confirmed that the big X-ray blast marked the birth of a supernova."
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Kim Page, from the University of Leicester who led the X-ray analysis, commented: "This observation is by far the best example of what happens when a star dies and a neutron star is born."
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