Cornell: Milky Way's Center Unveils Supernova 'Dust Factory'

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Cornell: Milky Way's Center Unveils Supernova 'Dust Factory'

Post by bystander » Fri Mar 20, 2015 8:11 pm

Milky Way's Center Unveils Supernova 'Dust Factory'
Cornell University | 2015 Mar 19
Sifting through the center of the Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have made the first direct observations – using an infrared telescope aboard a modified Boeing 747 – of cosmic building-block dust resulting from an ancient supernova.

“Dust itself is very important because it’s the stuff that forms stars and planets, like the sun and Earth, respectively, so to know where it comes from is an important question,” said lead author Ryan Lau, Cornell postdoctoral associate for astronomy, in research published March 19 in Science Express. “Our work strongly reinforces the theory that supernovae are producing the dust seen in galaxies of the early universe,” he said.

Lau explains that one of astronomy’s big questions is why galaxies – forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang – contain so much dust. The leading theory is that supernovae – stars that explode at the end of their lives – contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.

The astronomers examined Sagittarius A East, a 10,000-year-old supernova remnant near the center of our galaxy. Lau said that when a supernova explodes, the materials in its center expand and form dust. This has been observed in several young supernova remnants – such as the famed SN1987A and Cassiopeia A. In the turbulent supernova environment, scientists expect the churning dust to be destroyed. “That is theoretically,” Lau said. “There have been no direct observations of any dust surviving the environment of the supernova remnant … until now, and that’s why our observations of an ‘old’ supernova are so important,” he said. ...

SOFIA Finds Missing Link Between Supernovae and Planet Formation
NASA | SOFIA | 2015 Mar 19

Old Supernova Dust Factory Revealed at the Galactic Center - R. M. Lau et al
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