A study of supernova remnant SNR 0519-69.0 using the Chandra X-ray telescope, Hubble and more has narrowed down its age to several hundred of years. The remnant is located in the "Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy 160,000 light-years from Earth," according to the Chandra team.
00:09While astronomers have seen the debris from scores of exploded stars in the Milky Way and
00:15nearby galaxies, it is often difficult to determine the timeline of the star's demise.
00:21By studying the spectacular remains of a supernova in a neighboring galaxy,
00:25a team of astronomers has found enough clues to wind back the clock.
00:30The supernova remnant, called SNR 0519-69.0, SNR 0519 for short, is the debris from an explosion of a white dwarf star.
00:42After reaching a critical mass, either by pulling matter from a companion star or merging with another white dwarf,
00:50the star underwent a thermonuclear explosion and was destroyed.
00:54Scientists use this type of supernova, called a Type 1A, for a wide range of scientific studies,
01:02ranging from studies of thermonuclear explosions to measuring distances to galaxies across billions of light-years.
01:10SNR 0519 is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy 160,000 light-years from Earth.
01:18A composite image shows X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
01:29Astronomers combined data from Chandra and Hubble with data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope
01:35to determine how long ago the star in SNR 0519 exploded and learn about the environment the supernova occurred in.
01:43These data provide scientists a chance to rewind the aftermath of the star's explosion.
01:51The researchers compared Hubble images from 2010, 2011, and 2020 to measure the speeds of material in the blast wave from the explosion,
02:01which range from about 3.8 million to 5.5 million miles per hour.
02:06If the speed was toward the upper end of their estimate, the astronomers determined that light from the explosion would have reached Earth about 670 years ago,
02:16or during the Hundred Years' War between England and France and the height of the Ming Dynasty in China.
02:23However, it's likely that the material has slowed down since the initial explosion,
02:28and that the explosion happened more recently than 670 years ago.
02:32The Chandra and Spitzer data provide clues that this is the case.
02:38Astronomers found the brightest regions and x-rays of the remnant are where the slowest moving material is located,
02:44and no x-ray emission is associated with the fastest moving material.
02:50These results imply that some of the blast wave has crashed into dense gas around the remnant,
02:56causing it to slow down as it traveled.
02:58Astronomers may use additional observations with Hubble to determine more precisely
03:04when the time of the star's demise should truly be set.
Be the first to comment