The explosion of supernova SN 2018ivc belongs to a new class of such events. In this respect informs TASS, referring to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).
During a supernova explosion, its brightness increases several times and can outshine the light of the entire galaxy. This happens as a result of the gravitational collapse of ancient stars that burned all their hydrogen fuel, as well as the merger of stellar material with the participation of a white dwarf. SN 2018ivc was discovered in 2018 in the constellation Cetus, its source is located 3.2 million light-years from Earth.
Now Keiichi Mayeda and his colleagues have analyzed this outbreak and concluded that it is unlike anything previously known. Initially, scientists classified it as a type II supernova (IIL) produced by the gravitational collapse of a massive star, but some of the recorded data contradicted this hypothesis. These suspicions were confirmed during months of observations of SN 2018ivc by Japanese scientists with the help of the Chilean observatory ALMA, which operates exclusively in the microwave range.
What surprised the scientists most was that the brightness of the supernova gradually decreased in the microwave portion of the spectrum during the first year, but then began to increase rapidly. This came as a surprise to astronomers, as the researchers studied the remnants of SN 2018ivc in detail, as IIL-class supernovae shouldn’t behave this way. Observations showed that the epidemic was caused by a pair of stars that were a small distance from each other for the stars – they complete one revolution around each other in about 1800-1950 days. One of these luminaires almost completely depleted its hydrogen reserves, as a result of which, about 1.5 thousand years before the supernova explosion, almost all the outer shells were shed, after which the second luminaire began to draw on its remaining matter. Such a flash mechanism does not fit any of the patterns known to scientists.
Ultimately, this led to the death of the first star, resulting in a powerful flash and shock wave that now propagated through the star’s previously ejected shells and made them glow.
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