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    Telescopes solve 2,000-year-old stellar mystery

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) โ€” Astronomers finally know why the first documented supernova was super-sized.

    The exploded star was observed by the ancient Chinese in the year 185, and visible for eight months. It was later found to be a bigger-than-expected supernova remnant, 8,000 light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles.

    New observations in the infrared show the explosion took place in a cavity in space. The cavity allowed the stellar shrapnel to shoot faster and farther out into the universe.

    The star โ€” similar to our sun โ€” died peacefully and turned into a dense white dwarf. It sucked up material from another star, and then exploded in a supernova.

    NASA announced the findings Monday. Four space telescopes were used in the study.

    ___

    Online:

    NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/pia14872.html

     
    • JAMES  •  Winthrop, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Interesting but what exaclty is a cavity in space?
      • Kaptain Logic 7 mths ago
        Yeah, You would think the article would explain what a cavity in space actually is.
      • Zephyn 7 mths ago
        Stars give off a constant stream of particles called the 'solar wind'. As these particles get further and further away from the star, they start to slow down from the 'pressure' of the solar wind from other nearby stars and eventually stop altogether, forming a bubble of particles around the star called a Heliosphere.

        What they mean by 'cavity' here is an area where there aren't a lot of nearby stars, so there isn't as much surrounding solar wind to slow down the remnants of the supernova when it blew up. As a result, the size of the explosion is a lot bigger, so when astronomers first discovered it, they thought it was a lot closer.

        Eventually they realized it was much further away, and just recently they figured out why: there isn't much else out there to slow it down. That's the solved mystery.
      • viewer5 7 mths ago
        Thanks, Z. It is a rather glaring omission.
    • JOHNd  •  7 mths ago
      PS: I found the "full story" is available in the "Explore Related Content" section below this extremely brief and unsatisfactory summary article. By analyzing the "dust" within the supernova remnant, the astronomers think they've deduced that the white dwarf that accreted matter from a nearby star, to ultimately blow up as a Type 1A supernova, was unusual. Unlike most white dwarves, they think it had somehow "cleared" nearby space of dust and matter (perhaps from higher radiation pressure than normal at some point???). Therefore, when the regular Type 1A supernova exploded, there was no "drag" upon the matter being ejected as the remnant we see today, so it expanded faster and further than is usual for such objects, like the familiar Crab Nebula (which happened later) or the Veil Nebula (which happened earlier). The rather poorly chosen term "cavity in space" refers to nothing more exotic than a large volume around the original stars that was relatively free of interstellar dust, assuming the scientists are correct in their conclusions.
    • nunya  •  St. Louis, United States  •  7 mths ago
      astronomy joke: what happens in the event horizon STAYS in the event horizon
    • JoeNTX  •  7 mths ago
      Our sun will not explode as a supernova. It will become a red giant, and in time a white dwarf. Now if we were a binary star system, the white dwarf could conceivably steal material from its companion start and explode, but since it is not, the white dwarf will continue to cool for billions of years.
      • 9 tray_Cowboy 7 mths ago
        Nothing and no one will be here anyway.
      • Rant 7 mths ago
        And the odd theory is our sun will eventually turn into a brown dwarf, after white dwarf stage, but no brown dwarf has ever been observed, since the universe supposedly isn't old enough yet.
    • James  •  Milwaukee, United States  •  7 mths ago
      pretty interesting stuff what modern science can do , with modern technology these days
    • Chet  •  Southfield, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Perhaps we should spend more time getting our students interested in the sciences rather than in feeling good about themselves or becoming more attorneys...
    • RodA  •  7 mths ago
      Dear Marcia Dunn (AP "aerospace writer")
      You can't just throw out a phrase like "cavity in space" w/o explanation.
      Thank you.
      • Paul 7 mths ago
        It's kind of like "there's a hole in my nothingness". Gives one pause to wonder at the magnificence of ignorance.
      • michael 7 mths ago
        ...or the Beatles' Yellow Submarine.
    • jg123  •  Little Rock, United States  •  7 mths ago
      I know the galaxy is 'lumpy' with sections of space having galaxy clusters and other sections more empty or void of stars and galaxys; this might imply a gravitationally weak area, but I've not heard of a cavity in space either.
      • timothy 7 mths ago
        just a emptier spot in space I guess so there was less to collide with !
      • robert s 7 mths ago
        Me neither, I thin it is just an "expression" used by the author.
    • Mortimer  •  7 mths ago
      I've been wondering, since I was about 12 or so, HOW you can tell we're in an "Expanding" universe as opposed to a Contracting" one. Given that the observable universe is all moiving away from us at predictable, but accelerating rates, if you think about it, the observations should be the same if the universe were collapsing TOWARD a single point (bodies closer to the "center"are moving faster than ones farther out, and all would be accelerating away from each other).
      Granted, the apparent age of the universe doesn't fit with this idea, but...
    • Stephen  •  7 mths ago
      I believe the article meant that according to when we perceived it happening, it was approximately 2000 years ago (185 AD). We are always seeing what happened there 8000 years in the past, then or now, because of the 8000 light year distance, but I believe this was unrelated to the other information.
    • calven  •  7 mths ago
      Awesome.
    • Beep  •  7 mths ago
      I am not sure what a cavity in space is but I do know what a cavity in an article is.
    • Bob Ranger  •  7 mths ago
      I'm a resonably intelligent person with some cosmological "geekness," but the statement that the "...explosion took place in a cavity in space" makes no sense without qualification. I think @MarcD summed it up best (below).
    • John McCann  •  Albuquerque, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Finally a story on importance at the site.
    • Dukoth  •  Seattle, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Its sad to think that if a Super Nova such as this happened today ~ many many people would take it as a sign of the "end of days" rather than just an Awesome event in nature...
    • mikeG  •  Pinellas Park, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Could that "cavity" be nothing more than an area in space with little cosmic debris( gas, particles,etc.) to slow down the the exploding debris from the super-nova?
    • dimo  •  Berkeley, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Nice picture yahoo

      no, seriously
    • Boomer  •  7 mths ago
      Sad to think that there might have been life in that solar system.....
    • John  •  Middletown, United States  •  7 mths ago
      See now this is news.Something that makes the mind work,not some football game,or some so-called star did this or that,really quite boring,to bad the story was not extensive enough.
    • Clayton  •  7 mths ago
      Wow, Wow, Wow.......
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