An internationally renowned team of scientists including astronomers from the AMU Astronomical Observatory Institute Faculty of Physics and Astronomy - Prof. Michałowski, Dr Jakub Nadolny, Aleksandra Leśniewska and Martin Solar - have solved the mystery of cosmic explosions known as Type Ic supernovae.
Prof Michałowski shared the research details with us:
- ‘We have discovered that the mysterious explosions known as Type Ic supernovae are binary star systems approximately 10 times more massive than the Sun,’ he explains, and he adds - ‘Previous theories assumed that even larger stars, several times more massive than the Sun, might be the cause of these explosions.
We have reached this conclusion by observing how much gas can be found where the outbursts have occurred. To do this we used the world's largest radio telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, located in Chile.
"Our discovery will help determine how elements form in the Universe and how stellar outbursts stop more stars from forming."
A link to the team's publication in Nature: Binary progenitor systems for Type Ic supernovae
Photo: Adrian Wykrota