Researchers revealed a strange star that was basically “ejected” out of our galaxy after a supernova explosion.
In a recent study, Publish In the Astrophysical Journal, a team of researchers took a closer look at a star that appeared to be leaving our Milky Way galaxy about 2,000 light years away. The star named LP 40-365 is rushing out of the Milky Way galaxy at an astonishing speed.
“The star is moving so fast, it is almost certain that it is leaving the Milky Way… [it’s] It moves nearly 2 million miles per hour,” research co-author JJ Hermes of Boston University (BU) said at the university Press Releases.
BU explained that the reason for the eagerness to leave the galaxy is because LP 40-365 is essentially a “shrapnel” from a previous supernova explosion. Supernova It was the biggest explosion in human history. This special star survived a cosmic event. As a result, it is “ejecting from the explosion,” the second author of the study, Odelia Putterman, points out in the new edition.
In their study, the researchers looked at data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey and found that both the ultraviolet and optical light curves have a 8.914 hour change. Hermes explained that during this period, something on its surface may be spinning “in and out of view.” Therefore, it was not only thrown out of the galaxy, but also rotated in the process.
But for stars that survived supernova explosions, this particular rotation seems quite slow. BU explained that basically, when a white dwarf becomes too large and eventually explodes, a supernova occurs. In a binary star system, two stars form a pair. If the mass of the companion star is too large, the white dwarf star may become a supernova.
Based on the slow rotation of LP 40-365, researchers believe that it was not the companion star that was blown up, but the “shrapnel” from the companion star, which became a supernova after receiving so much mass from the companion star.
“[T]Survivor LP 40-365 is not a donor star, but it is likely to be the restrained remnant of a mostly destroyed white dwarf that has experienced advanced burning of an underbright (Iax-type) supernova,” the researchers wrote.
“This [paper] It adds a layer of knowledge to the role these stars play in the occurrence of supernovae,” Putterman said. “By understanding what happened to this particular star, we can begin to understand what happened to many other similar stars from similar situations. “
For example, in 2020, another group of researchers also reported a Blast yourself out of orbit Being with another star due to “partial supernova”.NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope also captured image The remnants of a star that has become a supernova, showing its companion star Survived the explosion.
Photo: Getty Images/NASA
