Star Self-destroys before Astronomers’ Eyes

It’s quite by chance when astronomers have captured footage of a star as it self-destructs into splintered pieces.

Stars about 8 times heavier than the sun meet their deaths in shattering explosions when their core runs out of fuel. The core then collapses into a black hole or neutron star which generates a shock wave that blows up the star’s atmosphere apart. It seems that these astronomers were at the right place at the right time when they saw a short but extreme X-ray signal through NASA’s Swift space telescope while observing a galaxy 88 million light years away. The big show lasted only for a few minutes.

Hundreds of supernovae occur every year, however, before the peak of their optical glow reach the earth; it is often too late to discern what kind of star exploded. Perhaps in the future, astronomers may not need to be lucky enough. Because of NASA’s proposed satellites, they could pick up hundreds of these explosions every year.

Popularity: 93% [?]