[금강일보 박정환 기자] The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (hereinfollowing referred to as the Astronomical Research Institute) recently presented observational evidence to explain how a Type Ia supernova explodes by capturing light within an hour of a supernova explosion by an exoplanet search system (hereinfollowing referred to as KMTNet).
A type Ia supernova has a very constant maximum brightness when it explodes, so it is used as a standard light source to measure the distance in space. The supernova exploration and observation team succeeded in observing the supernova ‘SN 2018aoz’ only an hour following the explosion using KMTNet. It is the youngest capture of light in the history of observations of a Type Ia supernova. Through this observation, the researchers confirmed that the color of the supernova was reddish between 1 and 12 hours following the explosion, and found that this color change was due to the greater distribution of iron at the edge of the supernova. The race to catch the light sooner following a supernova explosion is similar to the Olympic record-breaking Olympics in astronomy. This is because the sooner the light immediately following the explosion is observed, the easier it is to measure the size of a star and the elements inside it.
The 2011 SN 2011fe supernova was observed 11 hours following the explosion, the 2017 SN 2017cbv was observed 7 hours following the explosion, and the 2019 SN 2018oh was observed 3.6 hours following the explosion. The study, which observed light one hour following the explosion in a type Ia supernova, is a revolutionary result in terms of records.
Sang-cheol Kim, head of the Optical Astronomy Division, said, “This study is the first to specifically reveal how an explosion occurs in a type Ia supernova.
By Park Jeong-hwan, staff reporter [email protected]
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