A binary star system that included two stars’ explosion was reported to result in a rare supernova phenomenon. The event was mentioned to have the latter star to be filled with calcium and other elements due to the larger star.
According to UPI, the said explosion by the two stars made scientists think that the supernova that caused a star to be polluted by calcium and other elements belong to the class of “calcium-rich supernovae” which its origin is strongly debated. The star which was found out to have a supernova remnant left after a massive star explosion was studied as RCW 86.
With that said, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson shared that the supernova that had occurred between the two stars are one of the rarest events that only happen once in a century. As it was known that calcium is caused by helium shell detonation on low-mass white dwarfs, the study stated that it could also be caused by an explosion of massive stars in binary systems.
The study published in the journal Nature Astronomy also noted that the discovered neutron star in RCW 86 confused them in a way that it only emitted little optical light. The team then concluded the presence of a solar-type star, or G-star instead. Yet, intense X-ray emissions were found.
"The X-ray luminosity of the G-star should be significantly less than that was measured," Vasilii Gvaramadze, the lead scientist of the study from the Sternberg Astronomical Institute said. "We have come to a conclusion that we deal with a binary system, composed of a neutron star... and a G star," he further explained to Phys Org.
The research team from the Lomonosov Moscow State University then mentioned that they are now studying what the neutron star polluted was like before it exploded and the levels of other elements along with the calcium detected. Gvaramadze concluded that their findings would indeed aid into the further study of calcium-rich supernovae
