CANADA: According to a study published in the journal Nature, a team of Caltech astronomers has uncovered new data pertaining to the origins of recently-sighted Type Ia supernova. The astronomers have stated that the rare supernova was created with a white dwarf and companion star; and have thereby asserted the single-degenerate model with regard to the creation of the white dwarf supernovae.
The single-degenerate model claims that an exploding white dwarf is accompanied by a second Sun-like star or even a red giant. According to this model, as the white dwarf’s powerful gravity pulls material from the second star, its own temperature and pressure increases to the point that it stirs a nuclear reaction and explodes in a supernova.
The Caltech astronomers, employed intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), a robotic observing system, atop Palomar Mountain in Southern California, mounted on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.
This high-tech system scans about 1,000 square degrees of sky each night and it looks for transient objects whose brightness changes over timescales. The iPTF observed this Type Ia supernova, named iPTF14atg, in a nearby galaxy located 300 million light-years away.
Shrinivas Kulkarni, Head, iPTF project, stated,” The discovery provides direct evidence for the existence of a companion star in a Type Ia supernova, and demonstrates that at least some Type Ia supernovae originate from the single-degenerate channel”.
Type Ia supernova are explosive events which are produced when small dense stars, called white dwarfs, burst ferociously. There are two theories providing explanation of the origin of these supernovas. The first is the single- degenerate model, as discovered by the Caltech astronomers and the second is the double-degenerate model that asserts that an exploding white dwarf is accompanied by another white dwarf, and when the two objects merge it causes a stellar explosion.
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