X-rays from Chandra have provided evidence of at least two explosions associated with the supernova remnant 30Doradus B. Researchers have discovered that the supernova remnant 30DorB is a complex site with many explosive events, which improves our understanding of stellar life cycles and supernovae. Typically, a supernova remnant is associated with only one supernova.
30Doradus B is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way. 30DoradusB’s new images contain X-ray, optical and infrared data.
A colorful and festive image showing different types of light contains the remnants of not one, but at least two exploded stars. The supernova remnant, known as 30 Doradus B (or 30 DorB for short), is part of a larger region of space where stars have been forming for the past 8 million to 10 million years. It is a complex landscape composed of dark gas clouds, young stars, high-energy shock waves and superheated gas. It is 160,000 light-years away from the Earth and is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
The new image of 30DorB was taken by combining X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple), optical data from Chile's Blanco 4-meter Telescope (orange and cyan), and infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red). Optical data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was also added in a black-and-white tone to highlight sharp features in the image.
A team of astronomers led by Wei-An Chen from National Taiwan University used the Chandra telescope to observe 30 DorB and its surroundings for more than 2 million seconds to analyze the region. They discovered a faint X-ray shell about 130 light-years across. (For context, the closest star to the Sun is about 4 light-years away). The Chandra data also showed that 30DorB contains winds of particles blown from pulsars, forming what is known as the pulsar wind nebula.
Combining data from Hubble and other telescopes, the researchers determined that no single supernova explosion could explain what is being seen. Both the pulsar and the bright X-rays seen at the center of 30DorB are likely the result of a supernova explosion after the collapse of a massive star about 5,000 years ago. However, the larger, fainter X-ray shell is too large to have been produced by the same supernova. The research team believes that the 30DorB star has experienced at least two supernova explosions and that the X-ray shell was produced by another supernova more than 5,000 years ago. It's also possible that more supernova explosions have occurred in the past.
This result helps astronomers further understand the life of massive stars and the effects of their supernova explosions.
A paper describing these results was recently published in the Astronomical Journal.
Compiled source: ScitechDaily