Nasa detects 'disorderly exploding star'
Friday, 27 Oct 2006 12:56
Cassiopeia A
Science In Focus
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Nasa's Spitzer telescope has discovered that the star named Cassiopeia A (Cas A) exploded in a disorderly fashion, solving the riddle of the star's decline.
According to the scientists behind the discovery, this form of explosion resulted in the star retaining much of its original onion-like layering.
Previous studies have suggested that the star exploded in more or less an orderly fashion, flinging layers out in successive order.
If this were the case then these layers should be preserved in the expanding debris, but mysterious gaps were found in the debris.
Presenting the study's findings in the November 20th issue of the Astrophysical Journal, lead author Jessica Ennis of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, said that "Spitzer has essentially found key missing pieces of the Cassiopeia A puzzle".
Dr Lawrence Rudnick, also of the University of Minnesota, and principal investigator of the research, added: "We've found new bits of the 'onion' layers that had not been seen before. This tells us that the star's explosion was not chaotic enough to stir its remains into one big pile of mush."
Scientists have been particularly interested in Cas A as it is an ideal target for studying the anatomy of a supernova explosion. As it is young and relatively close to our solar system, telescopes are able to view the stages of its final death throes.
In a few hundred years the scattered remains will have completely mixed together, wiping out the possibility of discovering more about how the star lived and died.