Neutrino-powered Supernovas
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Animation of Earth as it spins in space. Text, News from the Universe, May 3, 2021
Neutrino-powered Supernovas, May 3, 2021.
Despite millennia of studying stars, questions remain about the spectacular process of a giant star exploding: a "supernova."
Now scientists have found a major clue - stable titanium in the young supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.
Cas A, 330 years old
Titanium, with other elements, is created during a supernova.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory data showed that supernovas are boosted by neutrino particles.
Elements are blasted out from within the dying star to where we can observe them.
Neutrinos have long proved elusive because they have very little mass and rarely interact with other matter.
Now there is strong evidence that at least some supernovas are powered by neutrinos.
This news was brought to you in part by the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts