Astronomers were surprised at how wimpy the explosion was from this dying star. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt)
Astronomers watched the strange death of a massive star that had a surprisingly “wimpy” and fast explosion in a galaxy 920 million light-years away. According to the researchers, this unusual explosion suggests that the dying star had a secret companion that was stripping away the star’s mass, leading to the surprisingly fast supernova. The team, led by CalTech graduate student Kishalay De, believes that this explosion birthed a binary neutron star binary system. They suspect the pair consists of the neutron star left behind by the supernova, called supernova iPTF14gqr, and the nearby, dense companion object that was stripped away the star's mass before it exploded. If this is true, it would be the first time researchers have actually observed such a system. A supernova occurs when a massive star runs out of fuel ...
