Ancient Supernovae Prompted Human Ancestors to Walk Upright
Did ancient supernovae induce proto-humans to walk on two legs, eventually resulting in homo sapiens with hands free to build cathedrals, design rockets and snap…
Supernova
SOFIA Observations of Supernova 1987A Surprise Astronomers
Dust particles form as dying red giant stars throw off material and become part of interstellar clouds of various sizes, densities and temperatures. This cosmic…
Hypernova Observations Reveal the Death of the Massive Stars
The end of a star’s life can occur in a tranquil manner in the case of low mass stars, such as the Sun. This is…
Stepping Inside Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
Cassiopeia A, the youngest known supernova remnant in the Milky Way, is the remains of a star that exploded almost 400 years ago. The star…
Astronomers Observe a Surprisingly Faint and Rapidly Fading Supernova
A Caltech-led team of researchers has observed the peculiar death of a massive star that exploded in a surprisingly faint and rapidly fading supernova. These…
Scientists Find Evidence of ‘Orphan’ Gamma-Ray Bursts
Astronomers typically study objects that are visible night after night or explode suddenly, like supernovas, but Casey Law is scouring vast amounts of data in…
Scientists Discover Why Some Supernova Explosions Produce More Manganese and Nickel
Researchers have found white dwarf stars with masses close to the maximum stable mass (called the Chandrasekhar mass) are likely to produce large amounts of…
Scientists Witness Birth of New Star from Hydrogen-Poor Supernova
The explosions of stars, known as supernovae, can be so bright they outshine their host galaxies. They take months or years to fade away, and…
New Study Completely Changes Our Understanding of Stellar Evolution
At the end of its life, a red supergiant star explodes in a hydrogen-rich supernova. By comparing observation results to simulation models, an international research…
New Method Uses Meteorites to Investigate Supernovae
An international team of researchers has proposed a new method to investigate the inner workings of supernovae explosions. This new method uses meteorites and is…
New Clues About Eta Carinae – The Star That Wouldn’t Die
What happens when a star behaves like it exploded, but it’s still there? About 170 years ago, astronomers witnessed a major outburst by Eta Carinae,…
Supernova Remnant HBH 3 -The Fading Ghost of a Long-Dead Star
Thin, red veins of energized gas mark the location of one of the larger supernova remnants in the Milky Way galaxy in this image from…
Scientists Observe the Magnetic Field Remains of Supernova 1987A
For the first time, astronomers have directly observed the magnetism in one of astronomy’s most studied objects: the remains of Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), a…
Hubble Image of the Week – One Galaxy, Three Supernovae
In astronomy, the devil is in the details — as this image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide-Field…
K2 Mission Discovers a New Kind of Supernova
The K2 Mission, an extension of the immensely successful NASA Kepler mission to search for exoplanets, has itself discovered nearly one hundred new exoplanets so…
Hubble Captures First Image of a Surviving Companion to a Supernova
Seventeen years ago, astronomers witnessed a supernova go off 40 million light-years away in the galaxy called NGC 7424, located in the southern constellation Grus,…
New Model Supports Connection Between Gamma Ray Bursts and Supernovae
A “core-collapse” supernova occurs when the iron core of a massive star collapses under the force of gravity and then rebounds, generating pressure waves and…
“Living Dead” Star Is Like Nothing Ever Seen Before
Ordinarily, a supernova marks the death of a mammoth star, which then briefly outshines an entire galaxy before fading away. Not so for a baffling…