Rare remains were found in the Milky Way center

Astronomers may have discovered the first example of our galaxy of an unusual type of stellar explosion. This discovery, made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, adds to the understanding of how some stars shake and seed the universe with elements essential for life on Earth.

This interesting object, which is near the middle of the Milky Way, is the remains of a supernova called Sagittarius A East, or Sgr A East for short. Based on Chandra’s data, previous astronomers classified the object as the remains of a giant star exploding as a supernova, one of many types of explosive stars that scientists have cataloged.

Using Chandra’s ideas further, a team of astronauts has now concluded that the object is left over from a different kind of supernova. It explodes a white dwarf, a striped stellar burden from a star that burns with fuel like our sun. When a white dwarf draws too much material from a companion star or merges with another white dwarf, the white dwarf is destroyed, accompanied by a spectacular flash of light.

Astronauts use these “Type Ia supernovae” because most of them emit almost the same amount of light each time no matter where they are located. This allows scientists to use them to accurately measure distances across space and to study the expansion of the universe.

Data from Chandra has revealed that Sgr A East, however, did not come from a typical Type Ia. Instead, it seems to belong to a specific group of supernovae that produce different sizes of elements than traditional Type Ias do, and less powerful explosions. This subset is referred to as “Type Iax,” a potentially important member of the supernova family.

“While we found Type Iax supernovae in other galleries, we have not found evidence for one in the Milky Way to date,” said Ping Zhou of Nanjing University in China, who led the new study while at the University of Amsterdam. “This discovery is important for capturing the various ways in which white dwarfs explode.”

The white dwarf eruptions are one of the most important sources in the universe of elements such as iron, nickel, and chromium. The only place scientists know is to create these elements inside a star-studded nuclear furnace or when they explode.

“This result shows us the diversity of types and causes of white dwarf explosions, and the different ways in which they produce these essential elements,” said Caltech co-author Shing-Chi Leung. in Pasadena, California. “If we are correct about the identity of the remains of this supernova, it would be the closest example on Earth.”

Astronomers are still debating the cause of Type Iax supernova explosions, but the main theory is that they involve thermonuclear reflexes that travel much more slowly through the star than in Type Ia supernovae. This relatively slow walk of the explosion leads to weaker explosions and, therefore, different sizes of elements extracted in the explosion. It is also possible that part of the white dwarf has survived.

Sgr A East is located very close to Sagittarius A *, the supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, and appears to intersect with a disk of material around the black hole. The team was able to use Chandra’s observations focusing on the supermassive black hole and the surrounding area for a total of about 35 days to study Sgr A East and the unusual pattern of elements in the X-data. ray to seek. Chandra’s results agree with computer models that predict white dwarfs that have undergone slow nuclear reactions, making it a strong candidate for Supernova Type Iax remnants.

“This supernova remnant is behind many of Chandra’s paintings of our galaxy’s massive black hole taken over the past 20 years,” said Zhiyuan Li, also of Nanjing University. “Maybe we’ve finally worked out what this is and how it came to be.”

In other galaxies, scientists claim that Type Iax supernovae occur at a rate that is about a third of the Type Ia Supernovae stage. In the Mild Trail, three Supernova Type Ia remains were tested and two candidates younger than 2,000 years old, depending on age when remains remain relatively clear before proceeding further. If Sgr A East is less than 2,000 years old and is the result of a Type Iax supernova, this study suggests that our galaxy aligns with the relative numbers of Type Iax supernovae seen in galaxies other.

Along with the suggestion that Sgr A East is the remnant since the fall of a big star, previous studies have revealed that a typical Type Ia supernova has not been ruled out. The latest study conducted with this Chandra in-depth data argues against both the big star and the typical Type Ia definitions.

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These results were published today in The Astrophysical Journal, and an introduction is available online. Other co-authors of the paper are Ken’ichi Nomoto from the University of Tokyo in Japan, Jacco Vink from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Yang Chen, also from Nanjing University.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.