Published 17:35 IST, July 16th 2020
Study suggests dead star careening across Milky Way likely a 'supernova survivor'
A dead star moving uncontrollably across the Milky Way galaxy at a speed of 900,000 kilometres per hour is likely a supernova survivor that at blasted out.
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A de star moving uncontrollably across Milky Way galaxy at a speed of 900,000 kilometres per hour is likely a superva survivor that at blasted itself out of an orbital bond with ar star, researchers have said. In a study, published in Monthly tices of Royal Astromical Society, scientists have argued that some stars might blow up in half-cocked partial superva events that are too short-lived for telescopes to detect. “And one such remaining part of a de star is SDSS J1240+6710, which was first discovered in 2015”, scientists wrote.
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researchers have said that celestial body is a white dwarf, which is a ‘dark steller husk’ left from deaths of stars. While most white dwarfs have an atmosphere me up of light elements like Hydrogen, this one has an atmosphere me up of pure oxygen, indicating its exotic origins.
Soon after its’s discovery, a team of researchers led by an astrophysicist, Boris Gaensicke used European ncy’s Gaia craft to clock breakneck speed of white dwarf. team discovered that SDSS J1240+6710 was t only moving very quickly but also moving in opposite direction of Milky Way’s rotational flow, “which implies that it was sent hurtling through galaxy by a pyrotechnic blast”.
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'Unique atmospheric composition'
y also me a follow-up observation in 2017 with NASA’s Hubble Telescope and found out that it h a “unique atmospheric composition.” In dition to strange oxygen-dominant atmosphere, SDSS J1240+6710 apparently lacks heavy elements such as iron, cobalt and nickel, which would rmally be present in a white dwarf that h undergone a successful superva explosion.
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Im credits: twitter.com/ufrgsticias
17:35 IST, July 16th 2020