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A newly discovered exploding star in the galaxy M51 was photographed at the new observatory of the Weizmann Institute of Science

The first identification of the supernova was made by amateur astronomers from France. The new Karar Observatory of the Weizmann Institute of Science, under the direction of Ilan Manolis, also photographed the phenomenon, as did the Weisz Observatory of Tel Aviv University at Mitzpe Ramon

The galaxy M51 and the supernova inside it as photographed by the director of the observatory at the Weizmann Institute, Ilan Manolis,
The galaxy M51 and the supernova inside it as photographed by the director of the observatory at the Weizmann Institute, Ilan Manolis,

Exploding stars are the "factories" where all the materials that make up our bodies are produced. In that sense, people are, in fact, made of stardust. The phrase "star" refers to a certain type of sun (the Earth, for example, is a planet, not a star). Stellar explosions, known as "supernovae", are very energetic events that sometimes light up the night sky. The explosion results from the imbalance between the force of gravity that pulls the material of the star (the sun) in, and the heat created by the nuclear reaction at its center that pushes the material out.
A certain type of exploding stars are much more massive (10-100 times) and younger than our Sun. In these stars, the nuclear reaction begins with the fusion of hydrogen into helium, as in our Sun. But later, when the hydrogen in the star's core runs out, nuclear fusion of heavier elements continues, until the star's core becomes iron. At this stage, since fusion of iron atoms does not produce energy, the nuclear reaction ends - and the balance is broken. In the absence of a force pushing outward, gravity takes over and the mass of the star collapses inward. During the collapse, a lot of energy is released causing an explosion, and the star throws its outer layers into the universe. When this happens, a very bright star suddenly "appears" in a place where no star was seen before. This is what happened on the night between May 31 and June 1. In one of the spiral arms of galaxy M51, an exploding star suddenly appeared.

The first identification of the supernova was made by amateur astronomers from France. The new Karar Observatory of the Weizmann Institute of Science, under the direction of Ilan Manolis, also photographed the phenomenon, as did the Weisz Observatory of Tel Aviv University at the Ramon Observatory. Israel's location in the world allows us to track the supernova at a time when most other observatories are in daylight and cannot collect data.
The supernova that was discovered is being studied by an international team of scientists which also includes Dr. Avishi Gal-Yam, Dr. Ofer Yaron, Dr. David Polishook, Dr. Dong Xue, and the research students Sagi Ben Ami and Yair Hakabi from the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Scientists from the USA, UK, Canada and other countries also participate in it. Already at this stage it became clear that the material of the exploding star scattered in space contains many different types of elements. This selection of materials is not typical for exploding stars at such an early stage of the explosion, and the scientists intend to examine the phenomenon.
The last supernova discovered in the galaxy M51 (which is only 26 million light years away from us) occurred in 2005. According to the conventional wisdom, such a phenomenon should occur once every 100 years in every galaxy, but the galaxy M51 is in an interaction (a certain friction) with a neighboring galaxy, which which causes the acceleration of the rate of creation and the subsequent collapse and explosions of massive stars.
Dr. Gal-Yam: We are asking amateur astronomers in Israel who watched the event and photographed it, to send us the photos and the timing. The cooperation with amateur astronomers is very important to us, and it may help determine the exact timing of the star's explosion."
The scientists are interested in images of the galaxy M51 that were taken between May 30 and June 2. The rawest files you can produce should be sent to ptf11eon@gmail.com.
If the image is useful, and its data will be included in a scientific article, the submitters of the image will be partners in the publication.

8 תגובות

  1. It makes the most sense. The matter will continue to move through the universe and will be absorbed by the stars it encounters.
    It's kind of like the big bang - the matter that was thrown into the universe spread from a small point in the universe - and it still continues to move and move away from the original point where it was created.

  2. Something here doesn't add up to me about the material thrown into space by a supernova explosion.
    After all, the space and the distances are so vast, where is it enough for the matter to spread? Who gets it anyway?
    The material that explodes from a supernova is supposed to be meaningless due to the vast distances, and the size of space, which is mostly just empty.

  3. Avner Ben Ner was indeed right.

    Big stars live a shorter time, this can be understood because typically a star twice as big as the Sun shines twice as much as it (by a finger calculation it shines 2 times as much) and therefore consumes its nuclear fuel faster than it (this is quite true as long as we are not talking about Stars of the order of 2 solar masses in which the illumination is proportional to the mass and therefore the lifespan is approximately constant).

    As for Toha's comment.
    You are right in your words, there are relatively young regions that produce stars at a very fast rate, up to hundreds of stars per year, but the Milky Way is an old galaxy and in it the rate of star production is about one star per year (and since massive stars only live for millions of years, the ones that explode today were born when the galaxy She was already a veteran). Since the fraction of massive stars of 5 solar masses among all stars is about 1 in 100, the estimate is quite reasonable.
    By the way, the fraction of massive stars can be estimated based on the initial mass function (see Wikipedia)

  4. in light of
    Although I'm not an expert in aesmrophysics, it seems that your response is absolutely wrong.
    You can read in any popular article about the life course of stars because precisely
    The massive stars use up their nuclear energy faster than stars
    lighter and their lifespan is shorter.
    For example, a star like the sun, its life span is from s.g. of billions of years while stars
    Massive, their typical life span is hundreds of millions of years.

  5. Obviously it's once every 100 years, let's take our sun as an example, until it explodes it will take a few more billions of good years, you can check on Wikipedia.

    And by the way our sun is not a massive star at all there are only a few percent of massive stars.

    And the more massive the star is, the longer it takes to run off its "fuel", which means a few billion more good years. You can look at it as a kind of paradox.

    Hope I helped.

  6. Only once every 100 years in the galaxy? Sounds unlikely to me. This means that only once every 100 years a very massive star is formed in the galaxy... sounds too little in light of the fact that there are clusters that produce thousands of heavy stars in a relatively short time.

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