(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of astronomers has obtained the first image of a supernova, the explosion of which was described by Chinese observers in 185 AD.
According to Phys.org, the image shows what’s left of a white dwarf that exploded over 1,800 years ago. This event was observed in China in 185, and ancient astronomers described it as a “guest star”.
It follows from ancient written sources that an “alien” star suddenly flared up in the sky and remained visible to the naked eye for almost eight months.
Earlier, astronomers carefully studied the ancient works and found traces of the event described in them.
Previous studies have shown that Chinese astronomers have observed a supernova explosion, which is now called SN 185.
The explosion occurred at a distance of more than 8,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of Alpha Centauri. As a result of a space disaster, a structure was formed, which received the designation RCW 86.
It was this structure, formed immediately after the explosion, that scientists managed to obtain.
This was done using the DECam dark energy camera installed on the four-meter Victor M. Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
The capabilities of the wide-angle camera have also allowed astronomers to track how supernova remnants have evolved over the past 1,800 years.
Scientists have found that a white dwarf in a binary star system has absorbed the material of its companion star.
Its dust winds then literally pushed the surrounding gas and dust outward, creating the cavity seen in the resulting image.
The white dwarf could not withstand the load – the mass of material falling on it from the companion star turned out to be so large that the white dwarf exploded.
The remains of the star were scattered across the previously formed cavity. The result is a monumental structure that has been photographed today.
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