Blast Wave from Cosmic Supernova Now Observable, Adds Insight on How Massive Stars Collapse

A cosmic art that seems like the hand of a ghost has been spotted recently by experts, providing us new knowledge on how the biggest stars fade and vanish. The astonishing space artwork was made possible from a core-collapse supernova's 14-year long process of imaging. The cosmic event was captured at a speed of 4,000 kilometers per second as it hovers the void of space.

Ghost Hand Stretching on Milky Way Observed in X-ray

(Photo: NASA/SAO/NCSU/Borkowski et al.)

The supernova remnant, along with its blast wave, can be seen on the tips of the ghost hand's fingers. The cosmic supernova, also known as the MSH 15-52, can be seen as what appears to be grabbing the collective gas formation or RXW 89 right at the tips. This occurrence shows the scattered supernova to slow down on the process of it expanding on the void, reports Science Alert.

The supernova that was captured was actually part of our own Milky Way Galaxy. It is among the youngest supernovas remnants ever recorded, which was slowly expanding just right in our backyard. Charted at 17,000 light-years from our planet, the supernova remnants MSH 15-52's explosion emitted its light that touched the face of Earth 1,700 years ago. The giant star was determined to have lost its contained materials to help it carry on its function and ultimately damaging its own core resulting in a collapse.

The supernova hand was labeled pulsar, a type of dead star with an extremely dense structure. In addition, the pulsar is also comprised of an atomic nucleus, as the overall object has a number of neutrons compressed, allowing it to rotate at a high-speed level while pulsating light emissions from its designated poles.

The exact speed that of the core's rotation is presented in the recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters entitled "Fast Blast Wave and Ejecta in the Young Core-collapse Supernova Remnant MSH 15-52/RCW 89," which is graphed through the help of the captured images from different years. From 2004 up to 2018, the supernova remnant had dive straight to RCW 89. This allowed experts to record significant changes on it through the distance traveled and the velocity of the shock wave.

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Cosmica Supernova Shows How the Prior Star Faded

The meeting point of the MSH-15-52 and RXW 89 is located right at the fingertips of the ghost hand, which quickly moves at a whopping 4,000 kilometers per second of speed. Along with the fast movement, some knots from other materials are observed to be plunging by up to 5,000 kilometers per second.

The materials are identified by experts to be neon and magnesium that served as an initial composite of the star before the cosmic explosion occurred. The ultra-fast movement of the debris makes even the seemingly slowest materials run around at 1,000 kilometers per second. However, the materials were studied to slow down its pace as it approaches the RCW 89.

The key takeaways from the cosmic explosion were when the prior star experiences the end of its fate; the body was hit by a strong stellar wind which is enough to blow away and strip the dying star of its own hydrogen contents. The materials moving at a fast space were remnants of the faded star's core. This astrophysical event was recorded for more than two decades solely by Chandra, a space telescope launched in 1999 through the Columbia space shuttle, reports Space.