FOCUS ON HUBBLE SPOTS STAR THAT SURVIVED A VIOLENT EXPLOSION

NASA’s most iconic space telescope has uncovered an object that survived the violent death of its companion

Samantha Mathewson

When a massive star reaches the end of its life, it explodes in a brilliant burst of light known as a supernova. This bright explosion can briefly outshine entire galaxies, which is how the star’s surviving partner remained hidden from view. Using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, researchers were able to study the supernova SN 2013ge in ultraviolet light. The scientists found that while the light from the bright stellar explosion has been fading since 2016, another nearby source of ultraviolet light has maintained its brightness over time, suggesting SN 2013ge has a surviving binary companion. “This was the moment we had been waiting for, finally seeing the evidence for a binary system progenitor of a fully stripped supernova,” Ori Fox, lead investigator on the Hubble research program, said. “The…

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All About Space Annual (Digital) - 1 Issue, All About Space Annual (2024)

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