A star exploded 64 million light-years from Earth: look at the image of the supernova!

Supernova event in galaxy NGC 4216: The star exploded when the dinosaur asteroid collided with Earth and only now do we see the light

Stellar explosions are not rare at all, which is why they are increasingly being discovered. this time The supernova occurred in the galaxy NGC 4216, located 64 million light-years from Earth. It is classified as type Ia. Below, this is the photo (with his caption) of our friend Rolando Ligostri:

“Last January 4, 76-year-old amateur astronomer K. Itagaki, during one of his surveys, discovered an SN in the galaxy NGC 4216. At the time of discovery it was about 16 mag, but within a few days it increased. It is now in 13th place^, and it is believed that it will reach 12th place in the next few days. SN has been identified as type Ia and is located in a galaxy about 64 million AL away from us, so we can say that SN exploded when the asteroid hit Earth, but we are only now seeing its light“.

But how exactly do these giants die?

In the classic case of Type II supernovaeAnd forming a neutron star or a black hole, we have successive combustion stages that follow each other in the intuitive way that we know: the combustion of helium, the end of helium and its contraction, the ignition and combustion of carbon, the end of carbon and its contraction, the ignition of neon until it burns first the oxygen, then the silicon and the production of an iron nucleus just before the final collapse. . At this point, the central density will reach values ​​high enough to induce electron trapping in the cells Atomic nucleiconverting almost all protons into neutrons (and emitting neutrinos, which will provide the crucial “boost” to Supernova), thus forming Neutron starOh one Black hole If the mass is high enough.

sourcecover image (artistic representation) by M. Kornmesser/ESO

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