NASA X-ray telescope sheds new light on supernova, death of a distant star

An X-ray image of the Cas A supernova remnant shows the blue glow of radioactive titanium-44 that was formed during the star's destruction some 11,000 years ago. NASA

An artist's concept of the NuSTAR satellite in orbit with its long mast fully extended. X-ray-sensitive optics are located at one end of the mast while digital cameras, a solar panel and spacecraft electronics are located at the other.

NASA

"The result we're unveiling today is the first ever map of radioactive material in the remnants of a star that exploded in an incredibly powerful event called a supernova," said Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology.

"This is helping us to untangle the mysteries surrounding how stars explode and in particular, what's happening at the very heart of the explosion. No other telescope could make this map."

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But eventually, if a star is massive enough to begin with, only iron is left in the core and fusion stops for good, triggering a final gravitational collapse and the birth of an ultra-dense neutron star or a black hole. In either case, material from the outer regions of the dying sun is pulled inward, crashes into the collapsing core and rebounds, triggering a cataclysmic shock and a flood of penetrating neutrinos.

But in computer simulations, the shock wave can stall out, preventing a supernova from proceeding.

One possible explanation is that powerful jets can form when a spinning star collapses and then blow the sun apart. Another model holds that the core collapse is not symmetrical and that it "sloshes" about, creating bubble-like structures that penetrate the shock front and give the neutrinos a way to blast out.

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NASA X-ray telescope sheds new light on supernova, death of a distant star