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The Kepler planet-hunting telescope was designed to do one thing: gather data from a single portion of the sky often enough to catch rare, brief events. The events it was looking for were slight dips in light that happened as a planet passed in between its host star and Earth. But it captured other transient events as well. Some of these other events were supernovae—the explosion of massive stars—and Kepler captured two just as the explosion burst through their surface.
But at least one of the brief events Kepler observed was so odd it wasn't originally recognized as a supernova. It was only after the observatory's data was released to the entire research community that people started proposing that something so bright was most likely a supernova. Now, researchers are offering an analysis of why this event looked so strange.
[...] So what was so odd about KSN 2015K? While the object was clearly bright enough to be a supernova, it was on an accelerated schedule, taking only two days to reach peak brightness. It was already fading out after only a week, and it was gone at three weeks. By contrast, another recent supernova was still brightening roughly two weeks after it was first detected. More generally, this new event was about eight times faster than we'd expect from a type Ia supernova. This makes KSN 2015K a "fast evolving luminous transient," or FELT.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/04/kepler-caught-strange-supernova-sudden-surge-rapid-decay/
Also at The Register.
A fast-evolving luminous transient discovered by K2/Kepler (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0423-2) (DX)
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NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope
After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets - more planets even than stars - NASA's Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
"As NASA's first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Not only did it show us how many planets could be out there, it sparked an entirely new and robust field of research that has taken the science community by storm. Its discoveries have shed a new light on our place in the universe, and illuminated the tantalizing mysteries and possibilities among the stars."
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Wednesday April 04 2018, @09:00AM (1 child)
I have always felt that some supernovae are brighter than others, which we know from standard candle measurements Ia type. But this means as well that some supernovae are also faster than others. When will we stop trying to treat all astrophysical phenomenon the same, and admit that there are natural differences between them? Can you imagine what it is like to be in a top-class supernova program, and have all the other supernovae say, "The only reason you are here is the Diversity quota!" It is time to stop the white supernova genocide!!!!
(THAT degenerated quickly!)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 04 2018, @12:19PM
Degenerated as in electron degenerate or neutron degenerate? Perhaps even quarks?