Melissa Weiss/Astrophysics Center | Harvard & Smithsonian
There is something very suspicious in the way this star died – and astronomers are dumbfounded. Instead of being pierced, a supernova began to try to feed on the small black hole dangerously close that should have swallowed it.
Astronomers discovered what a massive star exploding while trying swallow a black hole accompanying her, offering an explanation to one of the strangest star explosions ever observed.
Star death is a complex and mysterious process – but in the case of the supernova known as SN 2023zkdeverything was more macabre than any astronomer had ever witnessed.
As its name implies, this supernova – The term astronomical for the explosion that marks the death of a star – was first detected in 2023, when Zwicky Transient Facility identified it thanks to new artificial intelligence algorithms developed to detect such brilliant explosions.
A new algorithm of Artificial intelligence designed to detect unusual explosions in real time was the first to detect the explosion, and this Early Alert It allowed astronomers to immediately initiate follow -up observations – an essential step in capturing the full history of the explosion.
When the explosion ended, jit had been observed by a large set of telescopes, both in the ground and from space.
However, this supernova It turned out to be different.
In a new one, published last week in Astrophysical JournalHarvard scientists, Smithsonian and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were stunned with what they were observing at 730 million light years away.
According to the researchers in the center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, the star seemed to be dangerously close of a small black hole – But instead of being destroyed, it seems that the supernova started trying to feed of what should have destroyed her.
“It is not so unusual to see black holes and supernovas near each other,” he explains to A astrophysics Ashley VillarHarvard researcher and co-author of the article.
“Both were presumably stars, and some theories even suggest that the Supernovas can be part of the training process of black holes, ”he details.
In the case of SN 2023ZKD, however, Things seemed to derail Long before your strange dance with the neighboring black hole.
The algorithm of scientists initially detected the expected luminous flash Supernova – but, when analyzing file data, they found that it had been increasing brightness slowly for about four yearsmuch more time than usual in this type of phenomena.
Even more curious: SN 2023ZKD shine again unexpectedly as astronomers accompanied their evolution – a “dramatic re -order”As the researchers call it, apparently related to a thick and disc cloud detected near the explosion site.
“We think the light source results from material that collides when trying to escape“Explains Villar to the Washington Post.“ The explosion reaches this album and now we see all this additional light. ”
According to one of the theories, all these debris would be trying to break free of the gravitational force of the Supernova Black Hole.
If future analyzes confirm this hypothesis, this singular behavior may be “one of the lighter signs we have ever seen from a massive star to interact with a companion in the years before the explosion”Says Villar.
This is probably a cautious way of suggesting that it may have been the first time scientists have seen A supernova trying to devour a black holesays the.
Although it is likely that evidence of strange interactions between these two types of extinct stars have already been observed, technologies such as artificial intelligence used to discover the SN 2023ZKD will facilitate the detection of these phenomena flagrant.
“We are entering an era where we can automatically detect these rare events The moment they happen, and not just after”He explains in his turn Alexander Gaglianoalso co-author of the study and researcher at the National Science Foundation’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions.
“This means that we can finally start turning on the points Between the life and death of a star – and this is incredibly exciting, ”concludes Gagliano.
