February 23, 2024
5 Ming read
JWST decides the long -term secret of nearby supernova
Scientists have finally found a compact object in the center of the famous supernova 1987, and this is not a black hole
Almost forty years ago, the inhabitants of the Earth turned to a rare cosmic spectacle: an exploding star in our sky, which was visible to the naked eye. Named Supernova 1987a (SN 1987A), it was the closest such event of the last four centuries. Since the astronomers sought to observe the stellar residue, which, as they knew, should be hidden near the center of Supernova, shrouded in expanding the nebula of radioactive ash and incandescent. Now, thanks to the strength of the space telescope, James Webb (JWST), the team of scientists finally discovered that the elusive career confirming the suspicion that the explosion had created an extremely dense neutron star, and not a black hole with his head.
Opening, Published on Thursday in ScienceHe used the unprecedented infrared capabilities of JWST to penetrate the veil surrounding SN 1987A, allowing it to see in a literal new light. Peering into the heart of the wreckage, left by the death of a star, astronomers, led by Class France from Stockholm University in Sweden, spied on hints of ionized Argon and sulfur, that is, proof of elements that were so shocked by some external forces that their electrons were discharged. These energetic elements will not exist so close to the “Earth” SN 1987A-if they were not formed from intensive ultraviolet and x-ray bombing from nearby neutron star. The nourishing black hole, burping explosions of radiation, can also explain the result, but more than three decades of observations could not identify some other signs of such a thing in SN 1987A, which gave JWST the result of almost tight evidence of the existence of a neutron star.
“This is very exciting,” says Astrophysicist Mikako Matsuura from the University of Cardiff in Wales, who was not related to research and Previously proposed in 2019 that the neutron star will be found in this supernova. “This is probably the most convincing evidence of the presence of a neutron star in Supernova 1987a.”
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SN 1987A exploded on February 23, 1987 in the large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, which is about 160,000 light years from the ground. Supernova was not seen so close to our planet from the time of Supernova Kepler in 1604, when the star exploded in our galaxy at a distance of about 20,000 light years. Although SN 1987A was originally discovered due to its sudden clarification in the sky, the first signs of Supernova were from the neutrino surge, which were washed on the ground a few hours before the flash of light. This explosion registered in neutrinos, this explosion was clear evidence of the formation of a neutron star somewhere within the scattered remains of the star. The case for the neutron star grew, since further analysis showed that the precursor of SN 1987A was probably a blue supergiant star about 18 times higher than the mass of our Sun – rise, but still too light to easily turn the black hole.
Supernovovs are found in Two main ways: One of them is that the Sifmon star is too much material from the smaller star of the companions and explodes – this leads to the supernova type IA, such as a supernova keupler. Another type of supernova – supernova type II, such as SN 1987a, is plunging when a very massive star, which was not allowed from destruction under his own weight due to the external pressure of light escaping from its depths, suddenly comes from the fuel in its core. Without excess Starlight, to support it, the outer layers of the star fall inside the core, and then retreat to explode out, sending shock waves, making their way through the surrounding material. This process can quickly radiate more light than a whole galaxy of stars, and crush the nucleus of solar mass into the sphere of ultra-sufficient city-native star. In cases where the original star was especially hefty – 20 solar masses or more – the heavier, obtained as a result of a neutron star, then falls into a black hole.
According to Joanne Pedlger from the Central Lankashir University in England, so close neutron, so nearby, is scientifically fascinating, which was not related to research. “Physics differs from a neutron star,” she says, noting that these objects. ” Extraordinary gravity fields Squeeze your insides to create exotic states of the substance and significantly deform the surrounding fabric of space -time. “If we can find neutron stars, especially close neutron stars, we can study very well, then we can begin to understand the laws of physics in areas that we simply cannot recreate in the laboratory.”
Although the astronomers have already suspected that SN 1987A did not leave a black hole, they wanted to be sure. France and his colleagues spied on the characteristic features of the ionized Argon and Sulfur, noticeably close to the center of Supernova in July 2022, when JWST first began its scientific operations. “[SN 1987A] He was one of the first objects observed, ”says France, when JWST studied the consequences of Supernova for about 10 hours.
“The only source of energy capable of producing these [signs] This is a neutron star, ”says the co-author of the study by Patrick Kavanag from the University of Maynut in Ireland. In order for the black hole to do the same, it should be delighted with matter from the source, such as another star, because there is no evidence,-we are sure that we appreciated all the different opportunities, ”Cavana will say.
Carefully analyzing the light emitted by ionized material shows that the neutron star is not quite in the middle of SN 1987A; Rather, it is a little shifted because he received a “blow” from Supernova. When the star exploded, any insignificant imbalance would have shifted more outpouring in one direction or another, as a result of which the neutron star gave in the opposite direction, like an egg compressed from a balloon. Observations show that the neutron star moves a little towards us, having passed about 500 billion kilometers from the place of his catastrophic birth. “The speed of the blow is about 400 kilometers per second,” says Cavana, “in an extreme case, it’s fast for us here on Earth, but is still close to the immediacy of the light years.”
What is unclear is that SN 1987A remains only Neutron star. Instead, it can be a pulsar – a neutron star rotating so quickly that it shoots the streams of energy from its poles, which extend through the sky string, like Space Lighthouse beamsThe field “If there is a pulsar, the beam is not directed at us, so we cannot find it,” says Ivett Kends of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian, who did not participate in the study. But there may be another way to find out. In the standard scenario of a neutron star, pure heat from the star residue is so intense that it forms a lighthouse of ionized silicon, which is scattered further in an expanding cloud. In the Pulsar model, where emissions do not prevail heat, but rather by the wind of electrons and other particles that shock the inner garbage, ionized silicon, should be more scarce. Therefore, if silicon can be noticed and applied to the map around SN 1987A, “we can distinguish between them,” says Cavana. Still unpublished observations of JWST, which were taken by the team in the fall of 2023 and at the beginning of this week, they may contain this answer.
These observations give fresh information about the earliest moments after a supernova type II. “We have not seen the formation of a neutron star before,” says Fransson. Now that we have, further research on this cosmic young object with JWST and other telescopes should allow astronomers to learn much more about these amazing star events. “So far we will not see the supernova in our own galaxy, this is the best studied that we will have,” says Kendes.
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