Astronomers have made an important discovery through detailed radio observations of the Milky Way. They have identified the remains of about two dozen supernovae (explosive death of stars). This discovery opens up the possibility of finding many more such events within our galaxy. The use of radio observations allowed for a more thorough analysis of these remains.
About once every 100 years, a star in the Milky Way is predicted to go supernova. These powerful explosions, which are the dramatic final stages of massive stars as they run out of fuel, can eject huge clouds of dust and gas many light-years away from the star.
Such “supernova remnants” can persist for tens of thousands of years, before vanishing. Because these remnants often contain the heavy elements that gave rise to other stars, planets and even life itself, studying them can provide useful insights into the Galaxy.
Many such remnants have been discovered in the Milky Way, but astronomers believe they have seen only a small fraction of the total number. Many are too faint to be picked up, but most have been located by observing the radio emissions from the remnants as they expand, revealing their shapes that would otherwise be invisible.
According to Brianna Ball, an astronomy student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, “It’s the missing supernova-remnant problem. We know how many we should see, and we see far less than that.”
However, on 16 January a project spearheaded by Ball unveiled a new approach to finding supernova remnants. It combined the observing power of a single dish, the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, to find previously unseen supernova remnants in a region of the night sky. AustraliaWith the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a radio telescope with 36 antennas in Western Australia.
“We discovered 21 new candidates. This image was the first test we did, and it worked brilliantly,” said Roland Kothes, a radio astronomer at the National Research Council of Canada based in Penticton and Ball’s observer. The work has yet to be published.
Five of the 21 recently discovered supernova remnants can be seen in the image published by the team, including one with a figure eight. The spiral arms of the Milky Way, the Norma arm and the dense galactic center, are both heavily obstructed by dust and gas, where the image was taken.
According to an astronomer Carlos Badenas Who? The study of supernova remnants at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania said the discovery of the new remains could help we Learn more about “Types of stars that explode as supernovae”.
Last year, ASKAP began a five-year survey of the Southern Hemisphere, which covers half of the visible Galaxy. As a result more supernova remnants should be discovered.
“We’re detecting sources that previous telescopes might not have been able to detect because they didn’t have the resolution or the sensitivity. We’re hoping this will uncover a much larger population,” Ball said.
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