supernovae
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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…
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This Enormous Supernova Was Unlike Anything Seen Before
Astronomers have observed a supernova unlike any ever observed before, and it might be strong evidence of an important kind of stellar death that would have shaped early galaxies.
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Scientists Locate Neutron Star Collision That Could Have Created Our Solar System’s Plutonium
In 2017, observatories around the world observed a high-energy collision between a pair of dense objects, each slightly more massive than the Sun but only the size of a city. A similar collision closer to home could have been responsible for producing some of the heaviest elements in our own solar system — and scientists…
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New Supernova Discovery Explains Landmark Neutron Star Collision
August 17, 2017 heralded one of the most important observations in astronomy’s history: two neutron stars colliding, sending both light and gravitational waves towards the Earth. But it left one question wide open: how two of these stellar corpses could have ended up orbiting each other in the first place.