Supernova 2006gy

[ewmayer]

Article in today's New York Times about this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/opinion/11fri4.html

Sowing the Substance of Life

Published: May 11, 2007

Living where we do, it can be hard to tell how ordinary our Sun is, shining dimly in our ordinary galaxy. Then comes something to remind us. This time it is a colossal supernova, called SN 2006gy, the brightest ever recorded. A supernova is an exploding star. This one, first observed last September, lies about 240 million light-years from us in the constellation Perseus. The explosion was perhaps 100 times more powerful than an ordinary supernova, and the star that exploded may have been 150 times the Sun’s mass, “freakishly massive,” as one astronomer put it. A photograph of SN 2006gy shows that it vastly outshines the entire galaxy in which it is located. This takes some imagining.

But so does the nature of the explosion itself, which puzzled observers at first. The usual explanations could not account for a supernova on this scale, nor was this the predictable demise of such a massive star. Instead, this anomalous explosion seems to offer a glimpse into one of the essential conditions for the universe we observe — the dispersal of heavy elements like carbon and iron. What we are witnessing in SN 2006gy may be the making of the very atomic stuff out of which we ourselves are made. We are used to the notion that looking at the stars means looking back in time. Looking at SN 2006gy may mean looking at one of the fundamental processes in a much earlier universe.

Astronomers point to an analogous star in our own galaxy, Eta Carinae, about 7,500 light-years away. It is similar in size, and similar in instability, to the star that turned, dying, into SN 2006gy. There is a possibility that Eta Carinae may itself die a similar, extraordinary death. It is perhaps unwise to hope for grand celestial events in one’s lifetime. Stunning discoveries from the past should be enough. But it is tempting to wonder what such a nearby supernova, on such a scale, would be like, how it would be to live under such an altered sky.

Another good article in the Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0508/p01s04-usgn.html

Some animations on the Chandra space-telescope site:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/200...nimations.html

Here's a link to an astronomy forum that tracks how the observational events in this case unfolded:

http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?p=982702

[ET_]

150 times the Sun's mass? There could be enough mass to leave a big black hole behind...

Luigi

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by ET_

150 times the Sun's mass? There could be enough mass to leave a big black hole behind...

That's apparently one of the interesting and still-disputed aspects ... there's evidence that these ultramassive primordial supernova explosions may be quite different from those of later-generation stars, in that they are so violent they completely tear the star apart and leave no compact-object remnant behind. The CSM article mentions this.

[Uncwilly]

My local paper had this 2 days ago, as did Yahoo....

[ET_]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

That's apparently one of the interesting and still-disputed aspects ... there's evidence that these ultramassive primordial supernova explosions may be quite different from those of later-generation stars, in that they are so violent they completely tear the star apart and leave no compact-object remnant behind. The CSM article mentions this.

Hmm... maybe quantum black holes? Gravitons? If scientists accorded to talk about a primordial explosion creating heavy nuclei thrown away at very high speed, we could assist to the creation of exotic matter under the influence of a Calabi-Yau unrolling space if the energy suffices...

Luigi

[ET_]

http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons.../xuf010312.gif