Supernova shines like a diamond, but how?

Long after witnessing the brilliant explosion of a distant star, astronomers discovered that the remains of the same supernova were shining again.

Six years ago, researchers observed a supernova in the spiral galaxy NGC 4790; the event, named SN 2012au, is produced in the constellation of the Virgin, then slowly faded with time.

But a group of Purdue University scientists recently spotted the gaseous remains of the blast, apparently illuminated without outside interference, like those of a hydrogen-rich gas smashing into the remnants of the supernova and brightening them temporarily.

"We have not seen such an explosion at such a late time scale, unless an interaction with the hydrogen gas left by the star before the Explosion, "says Dan Milisavljevic, assistant professor of physics. and astronomy at Purdue. "But there is no spectral peak of hydrogen in the data – something else was stimulating this thing."

But what?

As larger stars explode, their interiors collapse and their particles become neutrons. If the resulting neutron star has a magnetic field and rotates fairly rapidly, it can turn into a pulsar wind nebula. Which, in turn, acts as a light bulb, lighting the supernova.

"We know that supernova explosions produce these types of rapidly rotating neutron stars, but we have never seen direct evidence at this unique moment," Milisavljevic explained.

His research, conducted with Purdue colleagues, was published in Astrophysical Review Letters.

Their work goes well beyond SN 2012 to: scientists can apply this theory to other extremely bright supernovae; by monitoring these sites, they can see similar transformations.

"If there is really a pulsar or magnetar nebula in the center of the exploded star, it could push from the inside and even accelerate the gas," said Milisavljevic. "If we go back to some of these events a few years later and take careful measures, we could see the oxygen-rich gas moving away even faster from the explosion."

These superluminous supernovae are potential sources of gravitational waves and black holes and may be associated with other explosions, such as gamma ray bursts and fast radio bursts.

Only Extremely Large Next Gen telescopes can observe these events in such detail.

An amateur astronomer recently captured the birth of a supernova. Meanwhile, scientists are making holes in supernova's "firewall" theory. Learn more about astronomy and black holes.

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