Supernovae Origins Investigated with New Space Project

Type Ia supernovae are the "standards" that researchers use to chart the distance of the universe. But are all of these stars the same? That's exactly what scientists want to find out and now, they may have learned a bit more about what causes these stars to explode and become supernovae in the first place.

In this case, the researchers collaborated on a project that provides a rare glimpse into the process of exploding stars. The project, called the Palomar Transient Factory, is a robotic telescope system that scans the night sky for changes. More specifically, the telescope can see bright points that "appear" when a supernova explodes. In addition, the Swift Telescope observed a recently found supernova in the ultraviolet range.

"Ultraviolet is crucial, because initially, supernova blasts are so energetic that the most important information can only be gathered in short wavelengths. And it can only be seen from a space telescope, because ultraviolet wavelengths are filtered out in the Earth's atmosphere," said Avishay Gal-Yam, one of the researchers, in a news release.

In this case, the researchers saw a unique, brief spike in high-energy radiation very early on. This spike fits a model in which a dwarf star has a giant competition. Material flows from a diffuse star to a dense one until the pressure from the added mass causes the smaller one to detonate.

The findings reveal a bit more about how supernovae occur. With that said, the scientists hope to make further observations in order to see if other supernovae follow similar trends.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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