University of Portsmouth | University of Southampton | 2018 Feb 20
[c][imghover=http://uopnews.port.ac.uk/wp-content/up ... ation.jpeg]http://uopnews.port.ac.uk/wp-content/up ... ation.jpeg[/imghover]DES16C2nm -- Credit: Mat Smith and DES Collaboration[/c][hr][/hr]An international team of astronomers has confirmed the discovery of the most distant supernova ever detected – a huge cosmic explosion that took place 10.5 billion years ago, or three-quarters the age of the Universe itself.
The exploding star, named DES16C2nm, was detected by the Dark Energy Survey (DES), an international collaboration to map several hundred million galaxies in order to find out more about dark energy – the mysterious force believed to be causing the accelerated expansion of the Universe.
As detailed in a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, light from the event has taken 10.5 billion years to reach Earth, making it the oldest supernova ever discovered and studied. The Universe itself is thought to be 13.8 billion years old.
A supernova is the explosion of a massive star at the end of its life cycle. DES16C2nm is classified as a superluminous supernova (SLSN), the brightest and rarest class of supernovae, first discovered ten years ago, thought to be caused by material falling onto the densest object in the Universe – a rapidly rotating neutron star newly formed in the explosion of a massive star. ...
Studying the Ultraviolet Spectrum of the First Spectroscopically Confirmed Supernova at Redshift Two - M. Smith et al
- Astrophysical Journal 854(1):37 (10 Feb 2018) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aaa126
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1712.04535 > 11 Dec 2017