Astronomers Capture FIRST EVER Red Supergiant Explosion!

 

in the spectacularly unpredictable worlds of astronomy astrophysics and science in general how often does someone get to witness a spectacle that has truly never been seen by humanity before in the words of UC Berkeley researcher wwen Jacobson gallon we watched a red supergiant star explode yes there are an estimated 100 to 200

 billion galaxies in the observable universe and a virtually unfathomable number of stars but the chances of astronomers seeing a real-time explosion of a red supergiant is nearly impossible but now we have welcome to Science Reads, in today's article we dive into this

 unique moment in humanity's quest

 to understand our universe what we are

 learning from this event and when will

 we get a much closer and less comfortable look at our own sun in its death throes a star the size of our sun or smaller

 will ultimately end up a white dwarf

 while one much bigger than a red supergiant could collapse into a black hole so there's a window that stars need to fit into in order to reach their spectacular end as a supernova this doesn't mean however that humanity never gets to witness the event at least the aftermath chinese astronomers in 185 a.d observed a guest star that suddenly appeared and stayed for a whole eight months how stunning this must have been for these witnesses as well as others elsewhere who no doubt took note of the visitor in 1006 a.d another guest popped up in the constellation lupus bright enough to be visible in the daytime it's only once every 50 years that a star in our galaxy actually goes supernova so seeing the event as it happens nearby is extremely rare

 astronomers had already observed red supergiants before their death rose as well as after but what happened recently is something new and exciting the saga began in the summer of 2020 when astronomers at the university of Hawaii institute for astronomy panned stars on Haleakala maui detected a star flickering with bright flashes of radiation this was later interpreted as gas exploding from the star surface not just any star it was a red supergiant one of the largest stars in the universe with volumes that can exceed one thousand times the radius of the sun this particular red supergiant is some 120 million light years away from ngc 5371 a barred spiral galaxy that is face on to our vantage point and a stunning image available to backyard astronomers for over 130 days astronomers watched this dying star with the fascination of detectives detectives who for the first time would not be wondering when the event will happen or be on the scene afterwards to take pictures and interview witnesses this time they were the witnesses using two telescopes one at the university of hawaii facility where the anomaly was detected along with the w.m keck observatory on mauna kea hawaii island scientists were on high alert when their suspect went supernova it was quickly dubbed supernova sn 2020 tlf much of what was monitored and discovered by astronomers came in collaboration with the two hawaii observatories and northwestern university researchers astronomers credit remote access to the keck observatory telescopes from the evanston illinois campus as key to saving critical observation time and being able to monitor for transit events like supernovas the date the light from the explosion reached earth and was observed was september 16 2020 the team was ready when the supernova lit up the sky and quickly had the very first spectrum of the spectacular event they were also able to determine that the red supergiant snf 2020 tlf's progenitor was roughly 10 times the mass of the sun rafaela margouti associate professor of astronomy at uc berkeley said it's like reading the ticking time bomb we've never confirmed such violent activity in a dying red super giant star where we see it produce such a luminous emission then collapse and combust until now direct detection of pre-supernova activity in a red supergiant star has never been observed before in an ordinary type 2 supernova that's what when jacobs of galan said an nfc graduate research fellow at uc berkeley uc santa cruz assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics ryan foley leads the young supernova experiment transient survey which held vigil for the 130 days leading up to the cataclysmic explosion we finally detected the death rows of this relatively common type of stellar explosion said ryan foley this was only possible because of the young supernova experiment which is able to detect subtle changes of very faint and distant stars reinfolie also added when the data came off the telescope i saw the telltale signs of a supernova ramming into some material thrown off the star shortly before explosion previous data led astronomers to believe that red supergiants are somewhat calm before supernova but sn 2020 tlf ejected massive amounts of material just before it exploded researchers believe this indicates that some stars must undergo major changes in their internal structures before exploding that lead to the tumultuous expulsion of gas so now astronomers know of certain red flags such as the gaseous hiccups to look for in a soon dying red supergiant after all the high level of radiated light attracted attention to the star initially and astronomers monitor the supernova for another 300 days after the explosion models created by scientists suggest that sudden flashes of neon and oxygen fusion could generate waves that blow off some of the outer regions of the star a much more violent precursor to the end that was earlier believed the observation will also allow further transient surveys like ysc to detect dime red supergiants before their demise and enhance our understanding of these cataclysmic events further astronomers now have direct information on what to look for when a red giant is dying as well as knowing that detection of red flags evaded earlier surveys using this knowledge will enable finding more stars knocking on death's door and even better chances to study their demise and with this new understanding of what to look for we can imagine what the implementation of the james webb space telescope and nancy grace roman space telescopes will allow astronomers to see however concerning the closest and brightest star in the heavens namely our sun no one wants to see this phenomenon anytime soon but like death and taxes we know it's coming the good news at least initially is that the sun is a middle-aged star with roughly 5 billion years left before it finishes burning through its core hydrogen becoming a red giant and swallows both mercury and venus astronomers say solar winds will escalate to the point where they stamp out earth's magnetic field and strip our atmosphere away so exactly how's that good news yes it is 5 billion years down the road but according to a 2014 study our descendants will not be around to worry about the atmosphere blowing away anyway long before our protective layer goes sailing off into the cosmos and makes sunblock irrelevant the earth will transition to a venus-like climate and that's the swan song for life here the sun is increasing in brightness by one percent roughly every 110 million years using 3d modeling of the effects of that change results in a rough estimate of 1.5 billion years before we reach catastrophic thermal runaway conditions now researchers also say that the tipping point may be well before this 1.5 million year catastrophe with the gradual increase in thermal energy causing a moist greenhouse runaway that sends the oceans bleeding off into space okay maybe it wasn't good news after all so what do you think about humanity's first real-time look at a red giant's demise

 will life on earth survive long

 enough to see that happen here

 tell us in the comments and as always

 thank you for reading Science Reads