Sol Invictus
02-19-2010, 01:43 AM
Laura Roberts | 18 Feb 2010 | Telegraph.co.uk
Scientists used Nasa's Chandra X-Ray laboratory to study supernovas in five nearby elliptical galaxies and the central region of the Andromeda galaxy, a spiral galaxy closest to our own, the Milky Way.
Marat Gilfanov of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany said: "It was a major embarrassment that we did not know how they worked. Now we are beginning to understand what lights the fuse of these explosions."
The study published in the journal Nature suggests that most Type 1a supernovas are sparked by the merging of two white dwarf stars - the name given to the collapsed remnant of an old star.
The stars become unstable when they exceed their weight limit which causes a stellar explosion.
Previously it was thought that Type 1a supernovas were also caused by accretion - when the gravity of a star draws in enough material from a sun-like companion and becomes unstable.
Read More Here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7263199/Astronomers-discover-secret-of-the-supernova.html)
Scientists used Nasa's Chandra X-Ray laboratory to study supernovas in five nearby elliptical galaxies and the central region of the Andromeda galaxy, a spiral galaxy closest to our own, the Milky Way.
Marat Gilfanov of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany said: "It was a major embarrassment that we did not know how they worked. Now we are beginning to understand what lights the fuse of these explosions."
The study published in the journal Nature suggests that most Type 1a supernovas are sparked by the merging of two white dwarf stars - the name given to the collapsed remnant of an old star.
The stars become unstable when they exceed their weight limit which causes a stellar explosion.
Previously it was thought that Type 1a supernovas were also caused by accretion - when the gravity of a star draws in enough material from a sun-like companion and becomes unstable.
Read More Here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7263199/Astronomers-discover-secret-of-the-supernova.html)