Astronomy Picture of the Day: 12/05/13 – E0102

In one of the most beautiful images ever taken of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), Hubble reveals a greenish-blue shell of debris from a massive star that went supernova. The remnant, which is know as "E0102" for short (more formally known as 1E0102.2-7219) -- is located approximately 210,000 light-years away from Earth in the satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. (Locally, it"s about 50 light-years away from N 76, a star-forming region found in the outer trenches of the SMC).

The stark contrast in coloring in this composite image can be attributed to different elements located within the star forming region of the Small Magellanic Cloud. N 76 is primarily composed of glowing hydrogen emissions. Whereas, E0102 is an oxygen-rich environment that has a startling absence of hydrogen and helium (key components in star formation). It is believed that the abundance of oxygen in the surrounding environment can be attributed to a very large, old and unstable Wolf-Rayet star. Over the course of the last hundreds of thousands of years, the star lost most of its hydrogen envelope through stellar winds. Said material then carried off the outer-most shell of the star, leaving behind oxygen once the star exploded. Shortly after, the core contracted to become a neutron star.

As far as the age of the remnant is concerned, it is relatively young compared to many of its similar counterparts. The original supernova blast was estimated to have taken place about 2,000 years ago and is just now starting to expand into the interstellar medium. (This would essentially mean that the explosion occurred more than 230,000 years ago. It just took so long for the light from the event to arrive on Earth)

Sources & Further Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-120513-e0102/

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA

We are Starstuff? (Unfinished)

Anyone even remotely interested in astronomy has probably heard someone (perhaps Carl Sagan or Neil deGrasse Tyson) say: "We are star stuff." But what does that mean exactly?

To give a quick breakdown: "Supernovae" occur once a star consumes all of its hydrogen fuel for nuclear fusion, causing the core to contract into a neutron star or a stellar mass black hole. As this happens, the star violently chucks the remainder of its gas off into space in a brilliant explosion that seeds the interstellar medium with heavier elements. Prior to a massive star going supernova (this only occurs with stars that are much more massive than our sun), it would have fused lighter elements (such as hydrogen and helium) into heavier ones (up to and including iron,which is number 26 on the periodic table of elements). And as we all know, iron is in our blood. Hence, our bodies are literally made from the stuff of stars.

To learn all about this process, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/we-are-starstuff-unfinished/

This amazing image comes from:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-astro-nebula.html

Cassiopeia A; The Star That Flipped Inside Out

So we"ve seen stars that are literally the size of our solar system, stars that are a brilliant blueish-white color that live short lives and blowup brilliantly, vampire stars that stay young by siphoning material off of their companion, and now we"ve seen a star that turned inside out. Yes... you read that right. Astronomers have found a star that literally turned inside out when it was in its final throws of life. You couldn"t - pardon the french - make this shit up. And lets be honest.. why would you want to? The universe in general tends to surprise us with its abnormalities, and there is always something else to learn from each celestial object we point our telescopes toward.

To find out how this is possible, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-end-of-cassiopeia-as-life/

Image Credit: NASA/CXC