Astronomers Capture ‘Giant Hand’ Remaining Supernova Material

As they approach death the stars explode creating supernovae. From the phenomenon of supernova explosions, astronomers have recently succeeded in finding giant material left over from the explosion with an amazing appearance.
Supernova or star explosion that died due to the collapse of the gravitational core. The brightness level can reach a billion times the original light of the star, it can even surpass the light of an entire galaxy, before dimming, and disappearing.
As events that mark the end of a star’s history, supernovae can last up to several months. Supernova events, although difficult to find, continue to be studied, including the material left over from the explosion that is useful in studying the universe.
But recently the astronomers controlling NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory space telescope managed to capture an image of the large, hand-shaped feature. This material is the remnants of a supernova explosion. The explosion event is estimated to have occurred at a place about 17,000 light years from Earth.
The explosion now forms a “giant ghostly hand”. The remaining explosive material has a fire-like appearance accompanied by a radius that looks like a thin cloud similar to a material nebula in the form of space dust, gas and plasma.
If you look at the image obtained by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, it looks like science fiction, even though it is real. “The ‘hand’ image emerges from the remnants left behind from the death of a rapidly rotating massive star known as a pulsar,” said Chandra’s team member as quoted by Live Science on Sunday (27/6).
Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars. This material is the remnants of the death of a massive star that exploded a bubble of particles around it. This explosion combines with debris from a supernova explosion.
The result of the combination of the two explosions creates a hand-like structure. No kidding, that hand spanned 150 light years. The luminous matter that appears is a giant gas cloud known as RCW 89.
The supernova remnant, later known as MSH 15-52, is thought to have occurred at a location about 1,700 light years away. “Recent events make the supernova one of the youngest known supernova remnants in the Milky Way galaxy,” said team member Chandra.
The Chandra space telescope had previously imaged the hand in April 2009. However, astronomers at the observatory continued to study further the dynamics that occur in the hand using telescopes from 2004, 2008, 2017 and 2018.
The results of research published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters in June 2020 also found a supernova explosion wave, which was located at the fingertips of the hand. Waves travel at a speed of about 14.5 million kilometers per hour, while those closer to the palm of the hand travel at 17.7 million kilometers per hour.
“Although this motion is very high speed, it is actually a slowing motion. The researchers estimate that to reach the furthest edge of RCW 89, matter must be moving at an average of nearly 48.2 million kilometers per hour,” continued team member Chandra.
The team added that this speed difference implies the material had passed through a low-density gas cavity and then slowed significantly as it hit RCW 89. The dead star likely created the cavity just before exploding.
The Chandra Observatory, which astronomers use, has been observing the cosmos in X-ray light for more than two decades. The space telescope that also targeted the supernova was launched into Earth orbit using the space shuttle Columbia in July 1999. hay/I-1