Artist’s impression of a Supernova.
The Universe doesn't stop amazing us... An international Team of Astronomers just published an amazing discovery... An "impossible" star which is exploding for over fifty years, giving more that "a head scratch" to astronomers and the current status-quo of stellar evolution theories.
Supernova iPTF14hls just broke all current theories of how supernovas develop, bringing a all new set of questions and challenges to astronomers and physicists all around the world.
Credit: LCO/S. WILKINSON
iPTF14hls grew bright and dim again at least five times over two years. This behavior has never been seen in previous supernovae, which typically remain bright for approximately 100 days and then fade. Adapted from Arcavi et al. 2017, Nature.
For more on this please read the article published by the LCO (Las Cumbres Observatory) here, or the original paper published by the researchers here (Nature)
Credit: POSS/DSS/LCO/S. WILKINSON
An image taken by the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey reveals a possible explosion in the year 1954 at the location of iPTF14hls (left), not seen in a later image taken in 1993 (right). Supernovae are known to explode only once, shine for a few months and then fade, but iPTF14hls experienced at least two explosions, 60 years apart. Adapted from Arcavi et al. 2017, Nature.