Twenty - one eld ago , astronomers find visible radiation from an unusual class of supernova , and they suspected that the explosion originated in a double - genius organization – where one star intensifies the mass - deprivation from the aging , elementary star of the brace . Now using NASA ’s Hubble Space Telescope , they ’ve tell apart that fellow traveler star , which had been hidden this whole prison term by the incandescence of the explosion .
This explosion , designated SN 1993J , happened in the galaxy M81 , about 11 million clean - years away in the direction of Ursa Major . A supernova blend off once every 2d somewhere in the universe . When a massive virtuoso approaches the end of its life , it incinerate through all of its stuff , and its Fe gist fall in ; the bounce outer stuff is what we see as a supernova . The rarified Type IIb supernova combines the features of a supernova plosion in a binary system with what ’s seen when a exclusive massive star explodes .
Like all Type IIb supernova , SN 1993J did n’t have a large amount of H present in the burst . But how it lost its H was a mystery . " This is like a crime scene , and we finally identify the robber,“saysAlex Filippenko from the University of California , Berkeley . " The fellow traveller principal steal a bunch of atomic number 1 before the elemental star exploded . " And this companion continues to combust as a blue , super - hot helium star .
investigator spent that last two decades seek for this fall behind companion and its gleam , called continuum discharge . observation made ten class ago at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea showed some evidence for phantasmal immersion lines that could come from this distrust companion . But with a crowded theatre of view , those feature film could also add up from other stars along SN 1993J ’s line of sight .
" A binary organization is likely call for to lose the majority of the primary star ’s atomic number 1 envelope prior to the explosion . The trouble is that , to escort , direct reflection of the predicted binary companion star have been unmanageable to obtain since it is so light relative to the supernova itself,“UC Berkeley ’s Ori Foxexplains in anews release .
Since the fellow traveller lead is so red-hot , its continuum glow should mostly be in UV light , which can only be detect above our atmosphere . " We were capable to get that ultraviolet light spectrum with Hubble,“saysAzalee Bostroem of the Space Telescope Science Institute(STScI ) . “ This conclusively demonstrate that we have an nimiety of continuum expelling in the ultraviolet radiation , even after the light from other stars have been subtract . ”
After collecting the UV spark , the team construct a multi - wavelength spectrum that match what they ’d bode for the companion star ’s glow . They were able to estimate the surviving star ’s luminosity and mass , which aid describe conditions precede the detonation .
This detection is the first metre astronomers have been able to put constraint on the property of a comrade star in Type IIb supernovae . Thefindingswere issue in theAstrophysical Journalin July .
Image : NASA , ESA , and G. Bacon ( STScI )
