There are some amazing events observed in astronomy; galaxies colliding, black holes merging, stars exploding, and more. A new category has been proposed--the hypernova, approximately ten times more powerful than a supernova.
These pieces in
The Conversation written by scientists involved in the research are a pleasure to see, a step up from sometimes dubious pop-science articles.
"We found a new type of stellar explosion that could explain a 13-billion-year-old mystery of the Milky Way's elements" |
The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/we-found-a-new-type-of-stellar-explosion-that-could-explain-a-13-billion-year-old-mystery-of-the-milky-ways-elements-163986)
QuoteUntil recently it was thought neutron star mergers were the only way heavy elements (heavier than Zinc) could be produced. These mergers involve the mashup of the remnants of two massive stars in a binary system.
But we know heavy elements were first produced not long after the Big Bang, when the universe was really young. Back then, not enough time had passed for neutron star mergers to have even occurred. Thus, another source was needed to explain the presence of early heavy elements in the Milky Way.
The discovery of an ancient star SMSS J2003-1142 in the Milky Way's halo — which is the roughly spherical region that surrounds the galaxy — is providing the first evidence for another source for heavy elements, including uranium and possibly gold.
In our research published today (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03611-2) in Nature, we show the heavy elements detected in SMSS J2003-1142 were likely produced, not by a neutron star merger, but through the collapse and explosion of a rapidly spinning star with a strong magnetic field and a mass about 25 times that of the Sun.
We call this explosion event a "magnetorotational hypernova".
[Continues . . . (https://theconversation.com/we-found-a-new-type-of-stellar-explosion-that-could-explain-a-13-billion-year-old-mystery-of-the-milky-ways-elements-163986)]
To quote Arthur C Clarke The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.