How an infant star solved the mystery of the Vela Jr supernova remnant.
A few thousand years ago the distant star Vela Junior came to the end of its life in a supernova visible to us today as a cloud of exploding gas and radiation. Despite being easily observed by astrophysicists, one key question remained unanswered: how far away is it?
Now, researchers at UM have helped solve the mystery of Vela Junior’s distance, revealing other important details like the true size of the supernova remnant and opening new doors for future research of other stellar bodies.
The international team has proved that these two stellar objects occupy the same region of space. This was accomplished using a powerful observational technique called integral field spectroscopy with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the Very Large Telescope, operated by the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
Integral field spectroscopy combines imaging and spectroscopy, capturing a full spectrum at every point in an image. This allows astronomers to see both where the light comes from within an object and also what it is made of.
“A star is a bit like an onion, it has layers,” says Dr. Safi-Harb. “When a star dies it explodes, sending those layers flying into space and what we’ve discovered is gas in the baby star's jet with the same chemical signature as the original “onion layers” of the massive star that blew up a few millennia ago.”
Understanding the lifecycles of stars is beneficial because it helps us better understand the fate of stars after they die, the chemical enrichment of our galaxy, and our place within it.
The UM team analyzed data provided by MUSE in Chile with international collaborators from Australia, USA, Taiwan and Switzerland.
“The MUSE observations show a spectrum in every pixel of the images that carry the fingerprints of different elements in the objects,” says Janette Suherli. “It's kind of poetic when you think about how these same elements came to Earth due to a supernova millions of years, and here we're witnessing Vela Junior enriching this young star in the same way.”
The breakthrough shows that Vela Junior is larger, more energetic, and expanding faster than previous estimates implied. The large size of Vela Junior is attributed to its massive progenitor star, placing it among the more powerful supernova remnants in the Galaxy.
Pinpointing its location and age is also important for the ongoing search of continuous gravitational waves from spinning neutron stars.
This discovery showcases the transformative impact of integral-field spectroscopy. These successful results help scientists better understand how stars live and die, how cosmic rays are accelerated to ultra-high energies, and how neutron-star cool over time.
“The fundamental science reflected in this breakthrough reflects the UM strategic priority for foundational research underpinning our leadership as a top research intensive university in Canada,” says Dr. Mario Pinto, Vice-President (Research and International).
“I congratulate Dr. Safi-Harb and the eXtreme Astrophysics Group on answering this persistent mystery and on their publication in this prestigious journal. This important discovery will surely be an inspiration for future researchers at UM and around the world.”
Read the full publication on the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.
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