Astronomers identify first progenitor star for Type 1C supernovae
Astronomers have for the first time identified a progenitor star for a Type 1C supernovae.
[The search for supernovae progenitor stars has found] a few pre-supernova stars. But the doomed stars for one class of supernova have eluded discovery: the hefty stars that explode as Type Ic supernovas. These stars, weighing more than 30 times our Sun’s mass, lose their hydrogen and helium layers before their cataclysmic death. Researchers thought they should be easy to find because they are big and bright. However, they have come up empty. Finally, in 2017, astronomers got lucky. A nearby star ended its life as a Type Ic supernova. Two teams of researchers pored through the archive of Hubble images to uncover the putative precursor star in pre-explosion photos taken in 2007. The supernova, catalogued as SN 2017ein, appeared near the center of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 3938, located roughly 65 million light-years away.
An analysis of the candidate star’s colors shows that it is blue and extremely hot. Based on that assessment, both teams suggest two possibilities for the source’s identity. The progenitor could be a single star between 45 and 55 times more massive than our Sun. Another idea is that it could have been a binary-star system in which one of the stars weighs between 60 and 80 times our Sun’s mass and the other roughly 48 solar masses. In this latter scenario, the stars are orbiting closely and interact with each other. The more massive star is stripped of its hydrogen and helium layers by the close companion, and eventually explodes as a supernova.
As can be seen by the quote above, identifying the star that exploded still leaves much unknown, including whether the star is a single or a binary. Still, they finally have some idea what kind of star erupts in a Type IIC supernovae, which will help constrain the theories for explaining the cause of these explosions.
Note also that this identification will not be confirmed until the supernova itself completely fades in about two years. They might find when that happens that the candidate progenitor is still there, meaning it was not the progenitor of the supernova at all.
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Astronomers have for the first time identified a progenitor star for a Type 1C supernovae.
[The search for supernovae progenitor stars has found] a few pre-supernova stars. But the doomed stars for one class of supernova have eluded discovery: the hefty stars that explode as Type Ic supernovas. These stars, weighing more than 30 times our Sun’s mass, lose their hydrogen and helium layers before their cataclysmic death. Researchers thought they should be easy to find because they are big and bright. However, they have come up empty. Finally, in 2017, astronomers got lucky. A nearby star ended its life as a Type Ic supernova. Two teams of researchers pored through the archive of Hubble images to uncover the putative precursor star in pre-explosion photos taken in 2007. The supernova, catalogued as SN 2017ein, appeared near the center of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 3938, located roughly 65 million light-years away.
An analysis of the candidate star’s colors shows that it is blue and extremely hot. Based on that assessment, both teams suggest two possibilities for the source’s identity. The progenitor could be a single star between 45 and 55 times more massive than our Sun. Another idea is that it could have been a binary-star system in which one of the stars weighs between 60 and 80 times our Sun’s mass and the other roughly 48 solar masses. In this latter scenario, the stars are orbiting closely and interact with each other. The more massive star is stripped of its hydrogen and helium layers by the close companion, and eventually explodes as a supernova.
As can be seen by the quote above, identifying the star that exploded still leaves much unknown, including whether the star is a single or a binary. Still, they finally have some idea what kind of star erupts in a Type IIC supernovae, which will help constrain the theories for explaining the cause of these explosions.
Note also that this identification will not be confirmed until the supernova itself completely fades in about two years. They might find when that happens that the candidate progenitor is still there, meaning it was not the progenitor of the supernova at all.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I know space is big and nearby is relative, but referring to a star in another galaxy 65 million light-years away as a “nearby star” made me smile.
Marcus Sammer: Yup, from the point of view of astronomers, a galaxy only 65 million light years away is “nearby.” Sounds strange, but when compared to the distances of most galaxies, in the billions of light years, this is practically next door.
Part Fun, Part Science:
“An Astronomer’s Guide to The Star Trek Universe :
Mapping the United Federation of Planets”
-Space Telescope Science Institute
https://youtu.be/DrDhh4m4GkE?t=1074
Bob did you saw this?
Gravitational waves spotted last year were created by merger of hyper-massive neutron star, scientists say
Researchers analyzed data from the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detector
The team initially thought the event led to the formation of a huge black hole
But, they instead found the two neutron stars merged to become one huge one.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6394451/Scientists-spot-gravitational-waves-caused-hyper-massive-neutron-star.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline
Will Smith: This was posted by me yesterday: Neutron star merger caused gravitational wave?
You are not doing your homework and reading Behind the Black closely. :)
Is this serious? We are looking so far into the past, how ca we use this information? Near the center of the spiral galaxy NGC 3938, 65 million light-years away is NEARBY?!
ONE Light Year is 5,878,625,373,183.6 miles. That is about 5.88 trillion miles! What they saw happened 65 MILLION YEARS AGO and is so far away 65 million TIMES 5.88 trillion miles, nothing we observe at these mind bending distances means anything!
–Alan
@ Alan….
We don’t have much choice…. If we want to study the universe, we must accept we do so through the lens of time.
Unless we have the rules of nature completely wrong, said rules were the same 65 million years ago as they are now .. so to say observations of distant astronomical objects and events mean nothing is nonsensical.
Alan,
The lens of time, as Lee S put it, is also a benefit. The farther distance that we can see, the farther back in time that we can see. It means that we can look at galaxies soon after they formed after the big bang almost 14 billion years ago, and that is interesting, meaningful information. So, yes, 65 million years ago is not that long on the universe’s timeline, but it gives us additional meaningful data.
It may not affect the price of rice in Nice, but it helps to sate our curiosity about the universe, where we came from, and where we are going.