by Astronomers have found the stellar “missing link” that directly links the death of a massive star to the birth of a black hole or neutron star.
The discovery was made by two teams of scientists using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the New Technology Telescope (NTT) to observe a supernova wreck named SN 2022jli, which was discovered in May 2022. Pouring into the spiral arm of the galaxy quite near NGC 157, located 75 million light-years away from Earth, SN 2022jli showed strange characteristics that distinguish it from other supernovae.
While most supernovae simply fade in brightness after the initial explosion that kills a star that has run out of fuel for nuclear fusion at its core, SN 2022jli instead fades in brightness regularly, but not smoothly. “jump” up and down every 12. Earth days or so.
This light oscillation appears to be the result of a black hole or neutron star that crashes through the puffed-out atmosphere of a surviving star among the wreckage of a supernova gas cloud, stealing material as it does so.
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“In the SN 2022jli data, we see a repeated brightening and fading sequence,” study leader and Queen’s University Belfast scientist Thomas Moore said in a statement. “This is the first time that repeated periodic oscillations, over many cycles, have been detected in the light curve of a supernova.”
Astronomers have previously seen indirect evidence of the link between destroyed massive stars and the remnants of super-dense galaxies such as neutron stars and black holes. One such example is a neutron star at the heart of the supernova destruction known as the Crab Nebula, which was created when a star exploded nearly a thousand years ago.
However, this new research is the first direct evidence of a link between supernovae and black holes or neutron stars.
The discovery was presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans on Tuesday, January 9, by the head of one of the teams of astronomers, Weizmann Institute of Science researcher Ping Chen.
A companion star is a witness to a massive star murder mystery
The two teams of scientists behind the observations of SN 2022jli think that the strange oscillating brightness behavior of this supernova is due to a companion star existing alongside the exploding superstar, making this a binary star system.
Although binary star systems are not exceptional, especially for massive stars, what makes this system really special is that the supernova death of the system’s supernova has not kicked up or destroyed its companion star and the of its orbiting object. together.
Using the X-shooter instrument on the VLT and a variety of other astronomical instruments, the team led by Chen made additional observations as well as visible regular fluctuations in the visible brightness of SN 2022jli. As a result they saw periodic movements in the hydrogen gas in the system and powerful bursts of high-energy light called gamma rays.
When all this evidence is put together, it suggested to the two research teams that when the system’s companion star interacted with the material that exploded the supernova death of its stellar sibling, the hydrogen envelope of the surviving star was “puffed out.” “
The black hole or neutron star in SN 2022jli is passing through this accretion layer, removing material with a gravitational influence. This material has formed a disk of material around the dense stellar remnant and the process is rapidly releasing energy that is responsible for the periodic flashes of brightness observed by both teams.
For the researchers, this theft of matter and energy from the companion star confirms the existence of a neutron star or black hole attracting the matter to itself, even though this bright stellar remnant cannot be seen directly.
“Our research is like solving a puzzle by collecting all possible evidence. All the pieces line up leading to the truth,” said Chen.
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Even if this supernova wreck can be confirmed to contain a neutron star or a black hole, the SN 2022jli system is still unique. That means astronomers have more mysteries to explore with the next generation of telescopes, such as the Very Large Telescope currently under construction in Northern Chile.
The missing link supernova research was published in two peer-reviewed papers in Nature and the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
