This Amazing Hubble Photo Shows A Star Dying Before Our Eyes
Supernovas are beautiful and powerful. Thanks to the work of Hubble and TESS, astronomers captured rare images of one right as it was dying.
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Supernovas are one of the most impressive events of outer space, and thanks to the continued work of NASA’s Hubble telescope, astronomers were able to analyze one earlier than what’s usually possible. The universe is filled with a seemingly endless number of stars. Each one comes in various shapes/sizes and goes through different transformations. While most stars have a gradual cool down and eventually turn into black dwarfs, some of them go off in a powerful explosion known as a ‘supernova.’
Whether it be a supernova or anything else happening in the universe, Hubble has been an invaluable tool for studying these things. Within the past month alone, Hubble’s discoveries have included a strange constellation with a large ‘eye,’ two galaxies that appear to be dancing through space, and a ‘star factory’ creating stars at an incredible pace. Despite being 31 years old and encountering a worrying computer glitch in the summer, Hubble is one of humanity’s best assets for groundbreaking space exploration.
This point was recently proven once more thanks to Hubble’s latest sighting of a supernova in its earliest stage. While astronomers have studied supernovas for ages, they typically don’t begin their research until a few days after the explosion is detected. Thanks to Hubble and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (better known as TESS), the duo recorded a star for days before it exploded, during the explosion, and weeks afterward. The supernova in question is called SN 2020fqv and is around 60 million light-years away from the Virgo constellation. In April 2020, it was initially discovered by astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility. Once they realized TESS was also observing SN 2020fqv, they decided to put Hubble on the supernova to get an even better look at it. Thanks to the quick thinking and teamwork, Hubble recorded the supernova in amazing detail.
One Step To Better Understanding Supernovas
Along with the beautiful photos, Hubble also recorded the “first holistic view” of a star that’s in its earliest stage of dying. When a star goes supernova, it shoots out something known as ‘circumstellar material.’ Circumstellar material has a very short visibility window and is often difficult for astronomers to study. Because Hubble was on the scene so quickly, it recorded SN 2020fqv’s circumstellar material in a way not usually possible. As explained by astronomer Samaporn Tinyanont, “For this supernova, we were able to make ultra-rapid observations with Hubble, giving unprecedented coverage of the region right next to the star that exploded.”
With this new information, Tinyanont hopes it can provide a better understanding of how stars die and how we can be prepared to keep catching supernovas so quickly. The documentation of SN 2020fqv is beyond impressive, but it’s just one of many supernovas in the universe that can hold valuable information. Additionally, further research of early supernovas could act as a ‘warning system’ for other stars. As astronomer Ryan Foley puts it, “As we find more and more of these supernovas with this sort of excellent data set, we’ll be able to understand better what’s happening in the last few years of a star’s life.”
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/nasa-hubble-photo-supernova-star-dying-early/