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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.
![remarkable ring of gas [Image]](https://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2018/04/180405120329_1_540x360.jpg){kind=link}
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday April 08 2018, @01:41PM (2 children)
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)
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
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.