Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On the morning of November 1, Beijing time, it is reported that when a star or supernova explodes, strong light will burst in all directions, and in rare cases, in the following months or years, the ring or "light echo" will spread from the original supernova position.

The supernova, called SN 2016adj, was first discovered in 2016 and is located in Galaxy Centauri A, 10 million to 1600 light-years from Earth. They spent five and a half years observing and analyzing the vanishing area around the supernova. Based on data from several astronomers' Hubble Space Telescope, the paper entitled "Hubble: spectacular light echoes peeling off the outer layer of supernova 2016adj in the dust path of Centauri A" was published in the recently published Astrophysical Journal KuaiBao.

The scientists combined the Hubble Space Telescope image into a brief dynamic video, first showing the central explosion of the supernova, and then the halo produced when the light from the explosion hit a nearby layer of dust. Professor Maximilian Strizzinger (Maximillian Stritzinger), a senior scientist at Aarhus University in Denmark, said: "this data set is very useful for us to produce impressive color images and animations. It shows the evolution of light echoes over the past five years, a rare phenomenon that has previously been recorded only in a few other supernovae."

Dr Morgan Fraser, co-author of the study and astrophysicist at the College of Physics at the University of Dublin, Ireland, said: "although the James Webb Space Telescope has attracted a lot of attention, its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, continues to provide incredible images of the universe. Hubble has been observing space for more than 30 years, so we can find phenomena similar to light echoes. The phenomenon is slowly evolving. "

The study's co-author, Dr. Luis Lluis Galbany, a scientist at the Space Science Institute in Barcelona, Spain, said that the shock wave produced by a powerful supernova explosion spreads outward at a speed of 10,000 kilometers per second, and in front of the blast wave is a strong flash released by the supernova, which is why we see the expansion ring in the image. Supernovae are of great interest to scientists because these cosmic explosions produce many heavy elements, such as carbon, oxygen and iron, which make up our galaxies, stars and planets.

Study co-author Stephen Lawrence (Stephen Lawrence), Ph.D., University of Hofstra, USA, said: "this can be thought of as the end of a fireworks display where the bright light from the fireworks illuminates the initial smoke from the fireworks. By comparing a series of photos taken in a few minutes, you can measure a variety of information that is not directly related to the last explosion that lit up the scene, such as the concentration of smoke produced by the previous fireworks burning, or how fast the wind was at that time. Which direction to blow and so on. "

It is reported that the supernova, named SN 2016adj, was first discovered in 2016 and is located in galaxy Centauri A, 10 million-1600 light-years from Earth. They spent five and a half years observing and analyzing the vanishing area around the supernova.

The Centauri A galaxy is covered with dust belts, and over time, when supernova light propagates sideways on the dust belt, they are illuminated farther and farther away from the original position of the supernova, forming a series of expanding emission rings called "light echoes".

Over the years, changes in emission rings have allowed researchers to detect the distribution of dust bands in galaxies near supernova explosions, with data showing that they are made up of cavernous dust columns with an overall structure similar to chunks of Swiss cheese.

Professor Strizinger said: "Galaxy Centauri An is a huge elliptical galaxy, in most cases very calm, no dust, no young stars evolve into supernovae to explode, but this galaxy is different. It is a powerful radio astronomical source that contains a distinct belt of dust in which new stars are born. This is a sign that it has recently engulfed another smaller spiral galaxy, and observing the light echoes released by that galaxy will help us understand the mystery of galactic collisions more deeply. "

So far, astronomers have observed four kinds of light echoes produced by four different layers of dust. The supernova SN 2016adj data set provides the earliest survey of the release of light echoes associated with supernovae. The team was able to measure light echoes within 50 days after the star explosion, while previous Hubble images of light echoes, such as supernova SN 2014J, began hundreds of days after the supernova explosion. This is the first time that light echoes have been found around Ic supernovae.

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