New research continues for supernova remnants in our galaxy. Using radio observations with the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and the MeerKAT radio telescope array in South Africa, scientists aim to find the remains of hundreds of these exploding stars scattered throughout the Milky Way.

A supernova is a devastating stellar explosion of either a massive end-of-life star or a massive end-of-life star. white dwarfA star that deposited too much stolen material from its co-star on its surface and suffered a thermonuclear explosion. In any case, the star or white dwarf breaks into pieces, its interiors dispersed into space and form the remnant of a supernova.

This debris contains most of the heavy elements produced by the supernova explosion, and on the leading edge of this debris are shock waves initially traveling at 10 percent the speed of light. Long after the supernova’s light fades, this expanding remnant of gas and dust remains for hundreds of thousands of years, slowly slowing its expansion as it disperses into the interstellar medium.

Currently, between 300 and 400 supernova remnants have been found in our Milky Way galaxy. Some of these are definitive; these include the Crab Nebula (from a supernova that exploded in 1054), the Veil Nebula (perhaps 20,000 years older), supernova remnant Vela (about 11,000 years old), and supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. 330 years. The youngest known supernova remnant in our galaxy is G1.9+0.3, located in the interior of the Milky Way and is about 130 years old.

However, observations made in other galaxies show that these other spheres contain much more supernova remnants than is known in our galaxy. And based on the number of remnants in these nearby galaxies, astronomers believe there should be around 1,000 remnants in our galaxy, meaning there’s probably a lot more to be discovered.

Now West Virginia University professor of astronomy, Lauren Anderson, is searching for the remnants of a starburst that has yet to be found.

“There’s a huge discrepancy in the number of supernova remnants we expect to see compared to the relatively small number we found,” Anderson said. expression.

Anderson and WVU graduate student Timothy Faerber will use the VLA and MeerKAT to search for radio emissions from hidden supernova remnants with a $331,170 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). They plan to distinguish them from other types of nebulae in the galaxy, using machine learning as well as visual inspection of digital images of the sky. zone H II The molecular hydrogen that forms stars.

In particular, Anderson and Faerber will direct their research to the center of the galaxy; here, the high stellar density increases the chances of finding new supernova remnants. In addition, they aim not only to find new remnants, but also to confirm whether suspicious objects are remnants and to rule out H II regions that were mistakenly identified as supernova remnants.

“This was done at runtime,” Anderson said. “The latest MeerKAT data allows for the most precise search for supernova remnants, and recent studies have identified hundreds of possible supernova remnants that need confirmation.”

Finding relics is not just an exercise in cataloging them. It is important to examine all of them. For example, the shape of the remnant and the distribution of its elements could allow astronomers to create 3-D simulations of how the supernova ejected debris, how that debris interacted with the interstellar medium, and how the debris eventually fell into the gas clouds that formed. next generation stars and planets. Source