Supernova from Blue Giant
Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:22 pm
Just saw this on the Science Channel and looked up the article it came from:
http://science.discovery.com/stories/we ... giant.html
Astronomers See Huge Supernova
by Patrick J. Kiger
In a previous paper, Gal-Yam and Leonard had suggested that the luminous point had spawned the supernova. But now, with post-event images, they could confirm that the light source had disappeared with the explosion, and that there was now a void where the star-and the supernova-had been. They were able to conclude that the solitary star indeed met its end in supernova SN 2005gl.
According to Gal-Yam's and Leonard's paper, the progenitor star most likely was luminous blue variable star, or LBV, a state in the evolution of massive stars. LBVs, which are extremely rare, are more than 50 times the mass of the Sun and among the hottest and most energy-releasing stars in the universe.
In standard models of stellar evolution, massive stars are not expected to explode until they've passed through the LBV phase, Gal-Yam and Leonard note in their paper. Their confirmation that LBV did indeed turn into a supernova may require a significant revision of those models.
This sounds a lot more like Larson's predictions for stellar evolution than the standard model. Even though the Science channel was saying the void was evidence of the formation of a black hole, the void left behind would be consistent with Larson's theory of intermediate speed (and thus not visible) products left behind.
http://science.discovery.com/stories/we ... giant.html
Astronomers See Huge Supernova
by Patrick J. Kiger
In a previous paper, Gal-Yam and Leonard had suggested that the luminous point had spawned the supernova. But now, with post-event images, they could confirm that the light source had disappeared with the explosion, and that there was now a void where the star-and the supernova-had been. They were able to conclude that the solitary star indeed met its end in supernova SN 2005gl.
According to Gal-Yam's and Leonard's paper, the progenitor star most likely was luminous blue variable star, or LBV, a state in the evolution of massive stars. LBVs, which are extremely rare, are more than 50 times the mass of the Sun and among the hottest and most energy-releasing stars in the universe.
In standard models of stellar evolution, massive stars are not expected to explode until they've passed through the LBV phase, Gal-Yam and Leonard note in their paper. Their confirmation that LBV did indeed turn into a supernova may require a significant revision of those models.
This sounds a lot more like Larson's predictions for stellar evolution than the standard model. Even though the Science channel was saying the void was evidence of the formation of a black hole, the void left behind would be consistent with Larson's theory of intermediate speed (and thus not visible) products left behind.