Have you ever wondered what happens inside a star when it goes out with a bang? This time, scientists got lucky—they’ve peeked inside a supernova for the first time. 💥
This cosmic firework, called supernova 2021yfj, exploded in our own Milky Way galaxy 🌌. Unlike most supernovas that mix all their layers, this one had shed its outer shells of hydrogen and helium long ago. This left an unusually clear view of its dense heart.
“We have never observed a star that was stripped to this amount,” says Steve Schulze of Northwestern University, co-lead on the study published in Nature. By shedding even its silicon and sulfur layers, the star confirmed decades-old models of how massive stars are built—with lighter elements outside and heavier ones at the core.
Anya Nugent, a supernova expert at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, adds: “Because so many of the layers had been stripped off this star, this basically confirmed what those layers were.” 🔍
But the big question remains: How did 2021yfj lose so much material? Did a violent wind blast off its layers, or did a companion star steal them away? Future observations will try to solve the mystery, though events like this are rare and hard to catch.
This discovery opens a new window on stellar evolution—one that brings us closer to understanding how the most massive stars live and die. Stay tuned for the next cosmic show! 🔭✨
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
