Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Sunday April 08 2018, @04:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the x-marks-the-spot dept.

Spectacular new pictures, created from images from both ground- and space-based telescopes [1], tell the story of the hunt for an elusive missing object hidden amid a complex tangle of gaseous filaments in the Small Magellanic Cloud, about 200,000 light-years from Earth.

New data from the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile has revealed a remarkable ring of gas [Image] in a system called 1E 0102.2-7219, expanding slowly within the depths of numerous other fast-moving filaments of gas and dust left behind after a supernova. This discovery allowed a team led by Frédéric Vogt, an ESO Fellow in Chile, to track down the first ever isolated neutron star with low magnetic field located beyond our own Milky Way galaxy.

The team noticed that the ring was centred on an X-ray source that had been noted years before and designated p1. The nature of this source had remained a mystery. In particular, it was not clear whether p1 actually lies inside the remnant or behind it. It was only when the ring of gas -- which includes both neon and oxygen -- was observed with MUSE that the science team noticed it perfectly circled p1. The coincidence was too great, and they realised that p1 must lie within the supernova remnant itself. Once p1's location was known, the team used existing X-ray observations of this target from the [Chandra X-ray Observatory]  to determine that it must be an isolated neutron star, with a low magnetic field.

In the words of Frédéric Vogt: "If you look for a point source, it doesn't get much better than when the Universe quite literally draws a circle around it to show you where to look."

[1] The image combines data from the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and the orbiting the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:28AM (7 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:28AM (#663886) Homepage Journal

    I said it before I'll say it again and I will never tire of saying it:

    The Solar System is the product of a supernova.

    We know this because of the abundance of heavy elements like lead and uranium:

    Iron is the most-stable element. You can't get energy by dividing - fissioning? - heavier elements and you can get energy by fusing lighter elements.

    As stars age, they use up their hydrogen then start fusing helium. Eventually they are not hot enough nor do they have enough pressure at their core to fuse anything else.

    I don't clearly recall what causes a supernova, but when it happens some of that energy and pressure results in elements that are much heavier than iron.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:36AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:36AM (#663888)

    And God so loved the Universe, He exploded His own Sun to create the Solar System. Amen, Hallelujah.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by aristarchus on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:56AM (5 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday April 08 2018, @06:56AM (#663891) Journal

    C'mon, MDC! This is basic stellar sequence stuff.

    As stars age, they use up their hydrogen then start fusing helium. Eventually they are not hot enough nor do they have enough pressure at their core to fuse anything else.

    Fusing Helium into Lithium, and Lithium into Beryllium, with some short cuts, but there are stars know as carbon stars, a brilliant red color. By the time a star is trying to fuse it's elements into iron, the outward force fails to counter the gravitational pull of the star on itself, so it implodes. But, an imploding star really has no place to go, so it rebounds (really big ones might manage a black hole). It is kind of like shooting your (old style CRT) TV. But that is not your classic super nova, just more of your standard stella novae.

    I don't clearly recall what causes a supernova, but when it happens some of that energy and pressure results in elements that are much heavier than iron.

    So, partly right. I am sure that if we had some takyon particles with us, things would be explained with more clarity.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday April 08 2018, @08:14AM

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Sunday April 08 2018, @08:14AM (#663901) Homepage Journal

      In the fall of my sophomore year I realized that I enjoyed making telescopes far more than I enjoyed looking through them.

      Astronomers don't make observatory scopes, that's always done by professional opticians and mechanical engineers, civil engineers and the like.

      A friend suggested I change my major to physics because it is very common for physicists to make their own experimental aparati, so I did.

      Really I prefer physics to coding, but every time I go back to school I go batshit insane.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday April 08 2018, @01:41PM (2 children)

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday April 08 2018, @01:41PM (#663927) Journal

      This is a pretty good summary, though core collapse doesn't explain all supernova types. Specifically, type 1a supernovas have different circumstances, somewhat similar to processes that create novas (though more rare and specific conditions are required).

      (Wikipedia summary of types and models here [wikipedia.org].)

      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday April 08 2018, @07:31PM (1 child)

        by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday April 08 2018, @07:31PM (#664040) Journal

        MDC is correct, we are stardust, and the heavier elements, especially the iron that makes up a large part of Terra, are the products of novae and super-novae. I just thought he did not make it clear that he was not talking about Sol, our sun, which is fairly young as stars go, and hasn't exploded yet. But the dust cloud, predominately hydrogen, of which our Sol and the rest of the our solar system formed, was doubtless the remnants of countless previous star-formations. And so we do have gold, and lead, and iridium, and uranium, and unobtainium and vibranium (OK, maybe not the last two), thanks to supernovae of the past.

        • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday April 08 2018, @07:58PM

          by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Sunday April 08 2018, @07:58PM (#664053) Journal

          Yes, I know all that (well, I didn't get the impression that he was talking about our sun)... I was just adding that core collapse isn't the only mechanism for supernovas, which was something he wondered aloud about and which you addressed. I was just mentioning another detail.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @09:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 08 2018, @09:02PM (#664061)

      I'm not 100% certain but I recall hearing that stars could produce elements above iron through some quantum effects. Not nearly as much as a supernova but still.