A historical supernova documented by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1181 has been lost for centuries, until very recently. Yet, the newly found remnant shows some stunning characteristics that are puzzling astronomers. A team provides the first detailed study of the supernova's structure and speed of expansion in 3D.
But this nebula is not a typical supernova remnant. In fact, astronomers were intrigued to find a surviving "zombie star" at its center, a remnant within the remnant. The 1181 supernova is thought to have occurred when a thermonuclear explosion was triggered on a dense, dead star called a white dwarf. Typically, the white dwarf would be completely destroyed in this type of explosion, but in this case, some of the star survived, leaving behind a sort of "zombie star."
[read more]A distant interstellar cloud was found to contain an abundance of pyrene, a type of large carbon-containing molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This suggests pyrene may have been the source of much of the carbon in our solar system.
Due to its symmetry, pyrene itself is invisible to the radio astronomy techniques that have been used to detect about 95 percent of molecules in space.
[read more]A surprising discovery about the black hole V404 Cygnus is expanding our understanding of black holes, the objects they can host, and the way they form.
Many black holes detected to date appear to be part of a pair. These binary systems comprise a black hole and a secondary object - such as a star, a much denser neutron star, or another black hole - that spiral around each other, drawn together by the black hole's gravity to form a tight orbital pair.
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