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Star Burst Caught Live

Posted Aug 30, 2006 at 03:01PM by Ernest G. Listed in: Astronomy, NASA Tags: NASA, black hole, neutron star, supernova, California, gamma
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supernova


Supernovae are a rare phenomenon indeed. Major ones tend to be seen only about once every 10 or 20 years. The most recent supernova, observed by scientists on Earth (before February 2006), occurred in 1998. The supernova (or death of a star) that was seen in 1998 was considered minor by celestial standards.

That explosion didn't even give rise to a black hole, as is common in the case of large exploding stars. A neutron star, common after smaller supernovae, was the final result of the 1998 explosion. The supernova that was observed this February was similar in size to the one in 1998; it was small, if you can call any supernova small.

NASA has a system in place that utilizes available technology to alert scientists as quickly as possible to instances of supernova in the vicinity and quickly pan their instruments and telescopes to gather data about the event. This particular supernova lasted an unusually long time (some 40 minutes); giving NASA's Swift satellite plenty of time to pan over to bring the supernova into view and gather as much data as possible.

"Usually these gamma ray bursts last fractions of a second to a couple hundred seconds," said Alex Filippenko, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. "This lasted many thousands of seconds. "The Swift satellite finds these things as soon as they go off, but the longer they last the more we can watch in real time, and others can turn their telescopes to it in real time."

Scientists continue to speculate about why this supernova lasted so long and what made it so unique. By getting such a detailed view of this most recent supernova event scientists will be better able to answer questions about supernovae from concerned policy makers and even possibly create technologies or methods to mitigate any possible hazards the Earth may face from gamma ray bursts in the future.

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