About 1800 years ago, a strange light suddenly appeared in the sky. Chinese astronomers recorded the event and called it a “guest star”. exploding stara fiery supernova deep in our galaxy.
Now, in the 21st century, scientists at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab pointed their giant telescopes at the cosmic landscape to capture rare and detailed images of historic explosions. This fragmented, ring-shaped space debris cloud is called RCW 86.
“Draping the outer edges of this star-filled image are faint curls that seem to fly away from a central point, like the ragged remains of a burst balloon,” NOIRLab said in a statement. It’s a beard,” he said.(opens in new tab)“These cloud-like features are believed to be the glowing remnants of a supernova sighted by Chinese astronomers in 185 AD.”
Huge mysterious explosion detected in deep space
Remnants of supernova explosion SN185.
Credits: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA TA Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab) / J. Miller (Gemini Observatory / NSF’s NOIRLab) / M. Zamani and D. De Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
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To capture this exploding space balloon, astronomers captured images with a high-resolution dark energy camera. The camera is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in the dark, arid mountainous region of Chile.
The supernova explosion expanded rapidly in space about 8,000 light-years away.Astronomers suspect a sun-like star may have used up all of its fuel and shrunk into a scorching core called a white dwarf.(opens in new tab), which then gradually ripped material from its nearby companion star (most solar systems, unlike ours, have more than one star). It was no longer able to support the tremendous weight. It collapsed and exploded. Technically, this is called a “type Ia supernova.”(opens in new tab)
“These supernovae are the brightest of all, definitely SN 185. [this specific supernova’s name] Observers would be in awe while it shone brightly in the night sky,” explains NOIRLab.
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Centuries later, with powerful telescopes, we can all catch a glimpse of its aftermath as the ring of stars still lingers around the explosion.
Thankfully, one day in billions of years, our medium-sized stars will also reach the end of their lives. It swells up and becomes red and huge, and can grow big enough to engulf the earth. But our stars don’t get big enough to explode. Instead, the outer layer sloughs off when it runs out of fuel, leaving behind a dense, hot core. Yes, the Sun’s destiny is also to become a white dwarf and orbit the center of our galaxy forever.
