Scientists are cracking the secrets of star formation by following the explosive trails of dead stars. This method could prove that all stars, everywhere in the universe, are created in the same way
Scientists in Italy have discovered an exciting new way to discover how stars form by investigating their spectacular deaths.
A recent article in Universe describes a groundbreaking approach to studying stars - tracing their origins by examining their deaths. This method allows researchers to derive the initial mass function (IMF) - the distribution of stellar masses after their formation - using data from supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. By using a common computational technique to estimate parameters, scientists have successfully calculated the IMF in distant regions of the cosmos, far beyond the reach of telescopic observations. They found that the IMF in these distant regions is very similar to the IMF observed in nearby parts of the universe.
This striking similarity raises the possibility of a universal IMF – a consistent pattern of star formation throughout the cosmos. Future observations from advanced space telescopes such as James Webb and Euclid will test and perhaps verify this intriguing hypothesis.
"All observed stellar populations in our environment appear to have remarkably similar IMFs. This could indicate that the IMF is a universal constant of star formation in every region of the Universe. Unfortunately, instrument limitations prevent scientists from examining stellar populations beyond the local Universe to test the The universality of the IMF," explains Francesco Gabrieli, one of the authors of the article.
Star formation is one of the most fascinating processes in the universe, occurring in dense inner regions of galaxies through the collapse and dispersal of clouds of molecular gas. When a mass of gas becomes hot and dense enough it begins to burn hydrogen, and glow: then a star is born.
The new research started with looking back, and specifically from the knowledge that the life course of a star depends on its mass. Massive stars end their lives in a spectacular explosion called a supernova. It is believed that some supernovae emit a fast jet of material that emits gamma rays in a so-called "gamma burst". Since the occurrence of a certain type of explosion depends on the mass of the star, the number of these explosions occurring in the universe will depend on the number of stars formed with the corresponding mass - in other words, the IMF.
Francesco Gabrieli explains: "My team and I developed a new method, based on these considerations, for determining the IMF beyond the local universe. Specifically, we used a computational method that is actually very common but has now been used for the first time to reconstruct the number of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts observed in the universe. Since the quantities These depend precisely on the IMF, this allowed us to precisely determine the shape of the IMF that best represents the observations."
Gabrieli concludes: "These are exciting times for astronomers, with many new telescopes such as Webb and Euclid starting observations. The result is an expected extraordinary number of observations of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts in the coming years. It will be interesting to see what we learn from this wealth of data about the IMF and its universality. Understanding A deeper IMF will lead to important advances in various fields of astrophysics, including stellar evolution, the chemical enrichment of the universe and observations In the gravitational waves emitted by colliding black holes."
, supernova explosions and star formation, the initial mass function, gamma-ray bursts and supernovae, the study of star formation, massive stars and supernovae, telescopic observations in astrophysics, uniform star formation pattern
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