Researchers have discovered a strange reverse shock supernova affected a nebula over 11,000 light-years from Earth.
A supernova exploding in a distant galaxy. Image source: NASA/ESA/Hubble
The expansion within Cassiopeia A doesn’t match the models we have of supernovas. As such, the researchers believe something else must have happened to cause the reverse shock supernova. It’s possible that a cosmic collision of some kind led to the strange backwards expansion that we’re seeing now. The researchers believe the shock wave may have collided with another shell of gas ejected by the star when it exploded. When the wave hit that gas, it slowed and began to create pressure in the inner shell that pushed the energy backwards. They also say that the outer shell may have forced its way through the new gas shell, creating the uneven expansion we see now.
Lead author Jacco Vink is an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam. Vink says that the motions inside the nebula are more chaotic than we’ve seen before. He also says that Cassiopeia A’s death all those years ago could have been the cause of uneven gas expulsions . The star lost a large chunk of its mass before its reverse shock supernova. They estimate it had 18 times the mass of the Sun at birth but contained only four to six times the Sun’s mass at its death. At this time, though, there’s no solid explanation for how or why the star lost so much mass.Josh Hawkins fell in love with writing and technology at a young age. Eventually he decided to combine the two and started writing about video games, the latest tech, and all the cool gadgets he could find.
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