NASA Releases Hubble Images of Star at the Exact Moment it Explodes

Observing a huge star just before it bursts into a supernova is extremely uncommon. Since 2010, astronomers have combined through the observational data archives of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The first time such an event has been spotted so early in the universe, scientists have discovered images of an exploding star that occurred roughly 11 billion years ago and was hiding behind a galaxy cluster.

wenli Chen, a researcher at the University of Minnesota and the principal author of a related study that was published in the journal Nature, said in a NASA statement that “it is a really rare event that a supernova may be identified at a very early stage, because that stage is really short.”

It only lasts for a few hours to days, and even local detectors can miss it, he claimed. We can observe a series of images in a single exposure, as if a supernova were showing off all of its different faces.

Due to the gravitational lensing effect, distant supernovae were found. Telescopes can observe far-off objects that would otherwise be too faint because a galaxy’s gravity spins and magnifies the light behind it.

Amazingly, the wrapping turned out to be an even greater blessing than anticipated, as it allowed for the simultaneous acquisition of three different faces from different eras in the form of multiple photographs, or “three faces.”

Various ‘paths’ of light were able to reach the explosion at the same time by traveling different distances through lensing and being, in effect, slowed down by the lensing galaxy’s tremendous gravity.

Researchers were able to gauge the supernova’s cooling rate and determine the size of the star prior to its explosion thanks to that brief timelapse. It was a red giant, roughly 500 times as large as the Sun, according to researchers.

Patrick Kelly, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy, said in a release, “You perceive distinct hues in three different photographs.

“You have a large star, its core collapses, creating a shock, heating up, and cooling down over the course of a week. One of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen, in my opinion, is that.

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