The discovery of a "factory" for exploding stars was discussed at a conference in Nashville.
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With the help of an array of radio telescopes, which are able to penetrate the thick layer of dust that surrounds a region where two galaxies collide, astronomers were able to observe such a large amount of exploding stars that they began to call the region a "supernova factory".
The discovery arouses admiration among astronomers, although it is not surprising. It is known that regions where galaxies collide are places where many stars are formed, and in the region of the new discovery several supernova explosions have been observed in the past. But according to scientists, what is amazing about the new discovery is the abundance of supernovae in the studied star cluster, which is relatively small. In addition, the studied area is scientifically interesting because it has characteristics similar to the conditions that prevailed at the beginning of the universe.
At the meeting of the "American Astronomical Society" in Nashville, scientists reported that they observed the remnants of four relatively old supernovae and of a supernova that recently exploded in an area whose diameter includes about 350 light years, not a large area in cosmic terms. The new supernova was only seven light years away from one of the other supernovae.
According to the number of explosions and the distance between them, scientists can estimate that this star cluster, which contains about a million stars, creates a new supernova every two years. This rate is fifty times higher than the normal rate of supernova explosions in an entire galaxy. By comparison, in the Milky Way galaxy, a star explodes only once every hundred years.
According to Dr. Suzanne Neff from NASA's Goddard Space Center, "We actually found a small factory for the production of supernovae. It is likely that there are more such 'factories', but we do not have sensitive enough means to detect them."
Although most of the stars in the observed star cluster are less than eight million years old, the conditions that exist in it, which encourage an increased rate of new star formation, are similar to the conditions at the beginning of the universe, and therefore "provide us with a rare opportunity to learn about the formation of the first stars billions of years ago," said D. R Neff
The "supernova factory" is located in the area of the collision of two galaxies, in an area called "Arp 299" which is about 140 million light years from Earth. The observations were made with the help of the radio telescope array - VLBA ten identical antennas of radio telescopes, spread over a particularly wide area between Hawaii and the Virgin Islands. The simultaneous observation of an object with such a wide surface makes it possible to locate details that could not be distinguished by observation with individual antennas.
Dr. James Alvestad of the Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico, who operates the array, said that unlike visible-light telescopes, the radio antenna array is able to penetrate the layer of dust surrounding Arp 299 and pick up details with better precision than previous observations. The four older supernovae Discovered last year, the young supernova was first discovered in February and observed again this month Olstad, the new supernova is a thousand times more massive than Cassiopeia, the supernova with the largest mass for the Milky Way.
A supernova is formed when an extremely large star, with a mass many times greater than the Sun, ends its life and explodes. The repulsion from the explosion causes the outer layers of the star to detach and disperse the heavy materials and elements of the star, which give birth to a new generation of stars and planets, and in at least one case - also new life.
The supernova factory in Arp 299 has the potential to continue producing at an impressive rate because it is dominated by stars with masses 10 to 20 times that of the Sun, making them more likely to explode.
John Noble Wilford, New York Times
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