cosmic explosion tagged posts

These cosmic ribbons of gas have been left behind by a titanic stellar explosion called a supernova. DEM L249 is thought to be the remnant of a Type 1a supernova, the death of a white dwarf star. White dwarf stars are usually stable, but in a binary system—two stars orbiting each other—a white dwarf can gravitationally pull so much matter from its companion that it reaches critical mass and explodes.

DEM L249, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is an unusual supernova remnant...

Observation challenges established theory of gamma-ray bursts in the universe. Scientists have gained the best view yet of the brightest explosions in the universe: A specialised observatory in Namibia has recorded the most energetic radiation and longest gamma-ray afterglow of a so-called gamma-ray burst (GRB) to date. The observations with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) challenge the established idea of how gamma-rays are produced in these colossal stellar explosions which are the birth cries of black holes, as the international team reports in the journal Science.

“Gamma-ray bursts a...

Artist’s conception of a Gamma Ray Burst. Jets of fast-moving material are propelled outward through a spherical shell of ejected material from the initial explosion of a massive star and its collapse into a black hole.
Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

A team of astronomers has detected the sonic boom from an immensely powerful cosmic explosion, even though the explosion itself was totally unseen. For years, astronomers have been hunting all over the sky for an example of this strange phenomenon, known as an “orphan afterglow.” At last, now they’ve finally found one.

The titanic eruption, known as a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), was generated by the collapse of a massive star in a galaxy nearly 300 million light-years from Earth...