NASHVILLE -- Astronomers have peered through a secretive cloak of dust to find five exploded stars in a region of space believed to be among the most energetic in the universe. They’re calling it a supernova factory, the first of its kind ever witnessed. NASHVILLE -- Astronomers have peered through a secretive cloak of dust to find five exploded stars in a region of space believed to be among the most energetic in the universe. They’re calling it a supernova factory, the first of its kind ever witnessed. The supernovae, forged at the intersection of two merging galaxies, help confirm a long-held theoretical expectation that galaxy collisions generate episodes of intense star birth and rapid death. Astronomers call these merging objects star birth galaxies, and they are thought to be a primary driving force of cosmic evolution. The supernovae, forged at the intersection of two merging galaxies, help confirm a long-held theoretical expectation that galaxy collisions generate episodes of intense star birth and rapid death. Astronomers call these merging objects star birth galaxies, and they are thought to be a primary driving force of cosmic evolution.
One of the newfound supernovae only recently exploded and was only spotted weeks ago. It did not show up in observations made last year. “This supernova is likely to be part of a group of super star clusters that produce an average of one such stellar explosion every two years," said James Unvested of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Normal galaxies like our Milky Way typically produce supernovae no more often than once a century. Unvested and his colleagues used a giant array of radio telescopes, which peer through thick dust that surrounds the scene and renders traditional telescopes ineffective. He likened the effort to trying to detect sunlight through a brick. The technique is expected to lead to several similar findings in other suspected starburst galaxies.
