Weird Supernova May Blow Away Star Explosion Theories
Light from a radioactive metal forged inside a supernova blast could prompt a rethink of how some star explosions occur.
The supernova SN 2014J is located 11.4 million light-years from Earth in the galaxy M82. Astronomers used the European Space Agency's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) spacecraft to examine the star explosion's light spectrum in the gamma-ray bands and saw elements that shouldn't have been there — suggesting that widely accepted models of how such events happen might be incomplete.
Scientists with the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany made the supernova discovery. [More Photos of Supernova SN 2014J]
A strange supernova
SN 2014J is a type Ia supernova. Type Ia supernovas occur in binary systems with two stars in orbits so close that the stars exchange mass. As the more massive star of the pair ages it evolves into a white dwarf, a star that is the size of Earth but has up to 1.4 times the mass of the sun. The companion star's outer envelope gets pulled to the tiny, but very dense, dwarf's surface.
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