‘Lost star’ caught on camera solving a 30-year-old space mystery
ASTRONOMERS have found evidence that a neutron star exists at the center of a special supernova.
For the past 400 years, Supernova 1987A was the only stellar explosion visible to the naked eye.
The star explosion is located in a neighboring dwarf galaxy and has been observed for more than 30 years.
However, scientists did not see any compact objects that would have been expected to have been produced during the explosion.
This means that until now no one knew whether the neutron star survived or collapsed into a black hole.
Neutron stars are the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star and have a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses.
Scientists suspected that a neutron star persisted because they discovered neutrinos, small subatomic particles, about 37 years ago.
This has now been proven in a new study thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Using the JWST, researchers were able to observe the supernova at infrared wavelengths.
Their observations found evidence of heavy argon and sulfur atoms with their outermost electrons removed.
Experts say this can only be the case if there is a bright source of ultraviolet and X-rays from a neutron star.
Co-author Professor Mike Barlow, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London, said: “Our detection with James Webb’s MIRI and NIRSpec spectrometers of strong ionized argon and sulfur emission lines from the center of the nebula surrounding Supernova 1987A is direct evidence of the presence of a central source of ionizing radiation.
‘Our data can only be provided with a neutron star as a power source for that ionizing radiation.
‘This radiation could be emitted by the million-degree surface of the hot neutron star, but also by a pulsar wind nebula that could have been created as the neutron star spins rapidly, dragging charged particles around it.
“The mystery of whether a neutron star is hiding in dust has persisted for more than thirty years and it’s exciting that we’ve solved it.”
He added that supernovae are the main sources of chemical elements that make life possible.
“There is no other object like the neutron star in Supernova 1987A, so close to us and so recently formed,” he said.
“As the material around it expands, we will see more of it as time goes on,” he continued.
A supernova is a violent explosion that occurs at the end of a star’s life cycle.
The star’s brightness after the outburst increases to millions of times normal levels and can cause it to shine brighter than the entire host galaxy.
The collapsed core of these exploding stars can result in much smaller neutron stars.
These are composed of the densest matter in the known universe or black holes.
The new study was published in the journal Science and involved researchers from Britain, Ireland, Sweden, France, Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Denmark.