supernovae
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Supposedly Dead ‘Tasmanian Devil’ Star Unexpectedly Whirls Back to Life
On September 7, 2022, the Zwicky Transient Facility detected a new transient object in deep space, about one billion light-years from Earth. The object was very bright, and now, a team of astronomers believes it’s a star that’s come back from the dead. The object was a star: a luminous fast blue optical transient, or…
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Exploding Supergiant Star Got Surprisingly Busy During Its Final Days
Red supergiant stars are quiet and calm before exploding into Type II supernova — but not this one. The observation is important because it suggests some supergiant stars experience significant internal changes before going supernova
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Exploding Black Dwarfs Could Be the ‘Last Interesting Thing to Happen in the Universe’
“This is the way the world ends,” said T. S. Elliot in his famous poem, “Not with a bang but a whimper.” These days, scientists consider the heat-death of the universe to be the whimper, but a new theoretical analysis predicts that the cosmos will breathe its final gasp in the form of exploding black dwarfs.
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Oh Yeah, Betelgeuse Is Definitely Looking Weirder
At this point, we’re all crossing our fingers that the dying star Betelgeuse will hurry up and explode already, because who doesn’t love a good show? The red giant star (visible in the constellation Orion) has been growing dimmer since late last year, leading many to speculate it could soon go supernova. Scientists operating the…