Supernova is the biggest explosion that has been observed from Earth, and it happens when a star at least five times the mass of our sun explodes as it runs out of fuel.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) working in the vacuum of space has revealed the never-before-seen dramatic moments after a star explodes, leaving behind remnants in the vastness. A new mid-infrared image from Webb shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A).
A supernova is the biggest explosion that has been observed from Earth, and it happens when a star at least five times the mass of our sun explodes as it runs out of fuel.
The star
exploded 340 years ago and is the youngest known remnant from an exploding,
massive star in our galaxy. On the cosmic timescale, the explosion is just
fresh and in its initial moments, giving a unique opportunity to learn more
about how such supernovae occur.
The remnants span approximately 10 light-years. This new image uses data from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to reveal Cas A in a new light. (Photo: Nasa)
“Cas A represents our best opportunity to look at the debris field of an exploded star and run a kind of stellar autopsy to understand what type of star was there beforehand and how that star exploded," Danny Milisavljevic of Purdue University, said in a statement.
This is not the first time that this young supernova has been studied. It was previously studied by a number of ground-based and space-based observatories, including the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Nasa said that the explosion provides scientists with a more comprehensive understanding of the remnant.
Astronomers, after analyzing the image, said that the striking colors of the new Cas A image old a wealth of scientific information and the bubble’s exterior material, which appears orange and red, due to emission from warm dust. "This marks where ejected material from the exploded star is ramming into surrounding circumstellar gas and dust," Nasa said.
Astronomers
said that studying the explosion could help answer questions like where does
cosmic dust come from? It’s difficult to explain the origins of this dust
without studying supernovas since very young galaxies in the early universe
are suffused with massive quantities of dust.
"Supernovae like the one that formed Cas A is crucial for life as we know it. They spread elements like the calcium we find in our bones and the iron in our blood across interstellar space, seeding new generations of stars and planets," Nasa said in a release.
Reference: NASA
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