Asymmetric ashes (artist's impression)

Artist's impression of how Type Ia supernovae may look like as revealed by spectro-polarimetry observations. The outer regions of the blast cloud is asymmetric, with different materials found in 'clumps', while the inner regions are smooth. Using observations of 17 supernovae made over more than 10 years with ESO's Very Large Telescope and the McDonald Observatory's Otto Struve Telescope, astronomers inferred the shape and structure of the debris cloud thrown out from Type Ia supernovae.

Such supernovae are thought to be the result of the explosion of a small and dense star — a white dwarf — inside a binary system. As its companion continuously spills matter onto the white dwarf, the white dwarf reaches a critical mass, leading to a fatal instability and the supernova. But what sparks the initial explosion, and how the blast travels through the star have long been thorny issues. The study shows that the outer regions of the blast cloud is asymmetric, with different materials found in 'clumps', while the inner regions are smooth.

Crediti:

ESO

A proposito dell'immagine

Identificazione:eso0644a
Tipo:Illustrazione
Data di pubblicazione:30 Novembre 2006
Notizie relative:eso0644
Dimensione:2427 x 1686 px

A proposito delll'oggetto

Nome:Supernova
Tipo:Unspecified : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Supernova
Categoria:Illustrations
Stars

Formati delle immagini

JPEG grande
1,2 MB

Sfondi

1024x768
368,1 KB
1280x1024
550,0 KB
1600x1200
746,8 KB
1920x1200
860,9 KB
2048x1536
1,1 MB