DEM L71: When Small Stars Explode
Explanation:
Large,
massive stars
end their furious lives in spectacular
supernova
explosions -- but small, low mass stars may encounter a similar fate.
In fact, instead of simply
cooling off
and quietly fading away,
some
white dwarf stars in binary star systems
are thought to
draw enough mass
from their companions to
become unstable, triggering a
nuclear detonation.
The resulting
standard candle stellar explosion is classified as
a Type Ia
supernova
and perhaps the best example yet of the aftermath
is this expanding cloud of shocked stellar debris, DEM L71, in
the nearby
Large Magellanic Cloud.
The sharp false-color
x-ray
image from the orbiting
Chandra
Observatory shows the predicted bright edges of the outer
blast wave
shock region and
the x-ray glow of an inner region of reverse shock heated gas.
Based on
the Chandra data, estimates for the composition
and
total mass of expanding gas
strongly suggest that this is all that remains of a white dwarf star.
Light from this small star's self-destructive explosion would have
first reached Earth several thousand years ago.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
