- Nasa’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), a high-energy X-ray observatory, an international collaboration created the first ever map of radioactive material in a supernova remnant named Cassiopeia A or Cas A — a star 8 times sun’s size long ago. This has enabled to look into the heart of massive dying stars to document activity of shockwaves.
- Supernova depicts the death of a star with a radiation burst which outshines an entire galaxy before fading out.
- The explosion ejects the star’s materials at around 10% speed of light, crating a shockwave in the surrounding interstellar space, which sweeps up an expanding shell of gas & dust (supernova remnant). The Cas A remnant was created more than 11,000 yrs ago when a massive star blew up as a supernova .
- “People should care about supernova explosions because that’s where all stuff that makes us comes from,” Brian Grefenstette, lead author of the paper said. “The iron in your blood, calcium in your bones & teeth, and gold in your wedding band — all that comes from the centre of a supernova explosion.”
Exams Perspective:
- Supernova
- Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)
- Supernova remnant