Australian scientists capture supernova in detail for first time

CANBERRA: Australian National University (ANU) scientists have first time captured the moments of the exploding death of a star.

In a study published on Thursday, the team from ANU collaborated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a host of international researchers to observe the earliest moments of a supernova in unprecedented detail.

The team discovered that the supernova was captured from beginning to end by NASA’s now-defunct Kepler space telescope in 2017.

“This is the first time anyone has had such a detailed look at a complete shock cooling curve in any supernova,” Patrick Armstrong, the lead author of the study from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said in a media release.

“Because the initial stage of a supernova happens so quickly, it is very hard for most telescopes to record this phenomenon,” he said. “Until now, the data we had was incomplete and only included the dimming of the shock cooling curve and the subsequent explosion, but never the bright burst of light at the very start of the supernova.”-Xinhua