Posted on 04/09/2007 12:07:48 PM PDT by bedolido
A star that survived a massive explosion – only to be destroyed in a second blast just two years later – has piqued the curiosity of astronomers. Its bizarre death might be due to the production of antimatter in its core towards the end of its life.
The star that exploded appears to have been a massive type called a Wolf-Rayet star, which begin their lives with more than 40 times the mass of the Sun.
It exploded in a galaxy 77 million light years from Earth, with the first blast occurring on 20 October 2004. It was so bright that the amateur astronomer who first noticed it initially mistook it for a supernova – the final blast that ends a star's life.
But the 2004 explosion was not fatal. The star was observed undergoing a second explosion on 11 October 2006. This one was indeed a supernova, and was named SN 2006jc.
This is the first time that astronomers have witnessed a star suffer a pair of explosions, with the second one ending its life.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
Where’s the blasted photo??? :-)
That's why the Pierson's Puppeteers moved their home-world.
ping.
So it wasn’t from a IED?
I understand what they mean, but that line just sounds a little odd.
Actually, I think the first blast occurred 77 million years ago.
hmmmmmm speed of light... I think it does sound off.
(just posted what they had printed)
Can someone help me out here? If the galaxy is 77 million lightyears away, then presumably the light from this took 77 million years to reach earth, and the event actually happened 77 million years ago. What am I missing?
Yes, you are correct.
It only became apparent to earth in 2004.
The cowards!
it’s got to mean when the scientists first saw the explosion. not when it actually happened.
But we couldn’t date it until we saw it. The scientists, if not the writers, know the difference...
That has to be what they mean but the geek who wrote that sentence in a better scientist than a writer.
Interesting...
IIRC, the chemical elements in a star fuse into heavier elements—H into He, He into C via Triple-Alpha (and a little over 7 MeV), C into O, O into Si, and finally Si into Fe.
The iron core is so heavy it cannot fuse anymore, and it grows—once it passes the Chandrasekhar Limit, the core collapses under its own gravity, decomposing into He, subatomic particles, and shockwaves. Shockwaves compress and shoot out, taking the stellar atmosphere with it.
Could be they’re talking about the possible creation of antihelium upon the collapse of the Fe core which then reacts violently with the surrounding matter.
Just FYI, this means that the first explosion happend on the 20th of October, 76997996 BC. Now I guess that I should don my asbestos suit before I say this, but that was somewhere toward the end of the Cretaceous period. Specifically during the Campanian Epoch. This post will pi** off creationists, global warming alarmists and just about anyone else who flaunts science. If you're wondering why I mentioned global warming, well here's a quote from Wikipedia:
The climate was very warm during the Cretaceous; there was no ice at the poles. Sea level was much higher than today, and large areas of the continental crust were covered with shallow seas; sediment cores show that tropical sea surface temperatures may have been 9-12°C warmer than at present, while deep ocean temperatures were as much as 15-20° C higher than today's.
Perhaps the writer is very geocentric.
“It exploded in a galaxy 77 million light years from Earth, with the first blast occurring on 20 October 2004. “
That is, it exploded October 20, 77,000,000 B.C.
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