Jakarta –
The explosion of Supernova 1006 (SN 1006) is the most powerful supernova explosion known, and one of the most well-known explosions in the entire galaxy. The explosion was seen all over Earth in the spring of 1006 BC.
So powerful, this explosion makes the galaxy so bright at night like day for months. Supernova SN 1006 appeared in the southern constellation Lupus in 1006 AD. SN 1006 is the brightest recorded star that has ever appeared in the night sky, and its appearances have been recorded in China, Egypt, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, France, Syria and North America. Modern astronomers found faint remnants of this explosion and determined that it was only 7,100 light years from Earth.
Supernova SN 1006 is about a quarter of the brightness of the Moon, bright enough to cast shadows during the day and easy to see in the middle of the night. Two studies in 2013 found that the shock waves from the supernova had an impact on the emergence of cosmic rays.
Quoted from NBC News, cosmic rays strike Earth with an enormous amount of energy that is far from anything that humanity is currently capable of. Exposure to cosmic rays is of increasing concern as humans are now actively planning manned space missions far from the protection of Earth’s atmosphere. Such radiation, for example, could damage the brains of astronauts in space by accelerating the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Sladjana Nikolic, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to examine the remains of SN 1006 in detail at 133 locations in the sky.
They used a technique called integral field unit spectroscopy which allowed them to see what kind of radiation the shock wave was emitting, as well as where it was coming from, in high resolution. Their observations produce ‘data cubes’.
“The idea (to) work on something new and something you never know what, is already very interesting, even without further results,” said Nikolic.
“The instrument we used has a high spatial resolution, an order of magnitude higher than the instrument used in all previous studies of optical shock emission.
Such precision provides a more detailed view of the processes occurring in the shock.”
The scientists focused on the northwestern edge of the remains, which had the brightest shockwave radiation. Their data suggests the presence of protons may be potential seeds for high-energy cosmic rays. These protons are called ‘suprathermal’, because they move much faster than expected.
The gaseous shell from this explosion, known as a supernova remnant, travels at about 3.6 million km/h, generating a shock wave that makes the interstellar gas glow.
“The supernova remnant is considered a laboratory for producing cosmic rays,” said Nikolic, lead author of the study.
In separate studies, different teams of scientists announced conclusive evidence that cosmic ray protons were created in the supernova shock wave.
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2023-07-25 04:20:44
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