Breaking News: Astronomers Witness Star Process Leading to Neutron Stars and Black Holes
For the first time in history, we have direct observation data about the star process that generates neutron stars and black holes. Astronomers watched Supernova in a nearby galaxy, as a result of which an object arose that has the characteristics of a neutron star or a black hole. This discovery confirms that the collapse of the nucleus of massive stars gives rise to the dense objects in the universe.
Stars-massive black holes and neutron stars, they believe, arise as a result of similar processes. The star, having exhausted the fuel to maintain thermonuclear synthesis, loses its external pressure, and its core collapses, forming a super-dense object. The nature of such an object depends on the mass of the star. For example, stars less than eight solar masses turn into white dwarfs.
Our understanding of these processes was mainly based on observations of the consequences, for example, neutron stars in the Milky Way. However, the observation of supernova in our galaxy is impossible for many centuries.
But the Supernovaya SN 2022JLI, exploding in the NGC 157 spiral galaxy in only 75 million light years from us, provided a unique opportunity. Its peculiarity was in a periodic change in brightness every 12.4 days within 200 days, which was first marked in the supernova light curve.
The Astrophysician team led by Ping Chen from the Weizmann Institute suggested that SN 2022JLI had a binary satellite who survived the explosion. They found explosions of gamma radiation and hydrogen movement at the site of the supernova explosion. Their analysis showed that brightness changes are probably caused by the interaction between the residues of SN 2022JLI and the satellite star. This discovery means that SN 2022jli became the first supernova, from which astronomers could observe in real time the emergence of a compact object.
This is the climax of decades of observations, analysis, and theory. Now our understanding of black holes and neutron stars can only intensify. “Our research is similar to the assembly of a puzzle from all possible evidence,” Chen says. “All these parts together lead us to the truth.”
The study is published in the journal