X-rays coming from type Ia supernovae tagged posts

Scientists have detected the first X-rays from what appears to be a type Ia supernova, located inside the spiral-shaped galaxy ESO 336-G009, about 260 million light-years from Earth. Credit: Vikram Dwarkadas/Digitized Sky Survey

Exploding stars carry a cloak of dense material that puzzles astronomers. A team of scientists, including scholars from the University of Chicago, appear to have found the first X-rays coming from type Ia supernovae. Astronomers are fond of type Ia supernovas, created when a white dwarf star in a two-star system undergoes a thermonuclear explosion, because they burn at a specific brightness. This allows scientists to calculate how far away they are from Earth, and thus to map distances in the universe...