Supernovae are some of thebrightest eventsin the universe , and some of them are so bright they get their own class . These superluminous supernovae ( SLSNe ) have long puzzled scientist , but now an international group of astronomers think they have worked out their origin .
Using advanced computer simulations , the team function out that SLSNe that want H are surrounded by dense swarm of carbon and atomic number 8 . When the ace actually burst , these cloud are lit up by the shockwaves of the supernova , bring forth the increased luminosity that we observe . A study trace the finding is published in theAstrophysical Journal .
Supernovae commonly become a billion time brighter than the adept they used to be and then they glow for a few workweek before dimming again . These SLSNe can be between 10 and 100 times more luminous than a regular supernova , and they stay bright for longer .
The study looked at the case of two specific SLSNe holler SN 2010gx and PTF09cnd . In both cases , the star is believe to be circumvent by a dense nearby cloud made from ejected material .
hotshot at the end of their life story tend to expel a significant amount of lot but even when that is take into invoice , these objective understandably seemed to be extreme events .
To create the model and multiply SN 2010gx , uranologist carry a swarm of material that has a sight between five and 10 time the raft of our Sun . If that sounds impressive , then PTF09cnd will ( literally ) go down on you away . The supernova must have been border by a cloud of 55 Sun worth of cloth .
While the research is impressive , this is just a first approach in remove the mystery story of these incredibly bright events . The pretense simplifies the problem significantly , and there might be some subtleties in the turbulent move of the material that is currently miss from the explanation .
Another matter is that , according to the most likely model , these stars are not only hydrogen - poor but also helium poor . leading development possibility argue strongly against a ace that has lost all its He . The team carry out unlike approach to include atomic number 2 in the fold , but so far they do n’t work as well .
The squad argued that succeeding observations should hopefully provide enough data about atomic number 2 composition to help rarify the model and expand what we know about superluminous supernovae .
[ H / T : Kavli IPMU ]
