Kilonova: Hubble has detected a huge explosion of stars

Supernovae, while impressive, aren’t exactly new to the scientific community. It is the result of the natural cycle of many stars which, in their final stages, collapse and die. For this reason, surprising space researchers is a good result, which does not mean that these scholars do not go out of their way to witness unprecedented facts. It was thus, analyzing the data collected by the Hubble telescope, that a group came across a new category of explosion: the kilonova.

According to NASA, kilonovas result from the collision between two neutron stars, the nuclei of stars that are languishing. This generates so much energy that it has a brightness 100 million times more powerful than that of the Sun, while also creating black holes. The astonishment, in this case, is linked to the absurd emission of infrared radiation, not justified by the traditional explanations of gamma-ray bursts.

Wen-fai Fong, the leader of the analysis, explains: “Given what we know about the radio and X-rays of this explosion, it just doesn’t make sense. The infrared emission we found with Hubble is very bright. In this puzzle, one piece does not fit properly. “

Plus, he says, if the equipment wasn’t watching the event right now, the team would never have been able to detect it. Therefore, they don’t know very well what to do with the information.

Something wrong isn’t right

Tanmoy Laskar, co-author of the study, says that, since the data arrived, the people involved have been dedicated to unraveling the mechanism responsible for the light emission in question, but that over time new approaches have been needed.

“As soon as we received the observations, we had to change our thinking, as we realized that we should have discarded conventional analysis. There was something new going on. After that, it was up to us to find out what it meant for the physics behind these highly explosive explosions. energetic “, details the scientist.

Ultimately, the researchers say, it is possible that the “victims” of the collision created a magnetar, a particularly massive neutron star with a high-intensity magnetic field. This hypothesis, they say, would justify the strange readings, but there is no certainty without additional information – which could take years to emerge again.