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It’s a star blast star universe
One of the first things you realize when studying astronomy is that our universe is a way more dangerous place than your standard episode of Star Trek may imply. That journey to strange new worlds? It’s likely to get interrupted by stellar events that go boom, flare, or irradiate in the night.
In today’s installation of How stars harm one another, we have the tale of a star that was left behind when its companion exploded. Back in 2013, a supernova went off in the nearby galaxy NGC 3287. The initial burst saturated the scene, but as the light of the SN faded, a small source of UV became visible, and that small glow appears to be a companion star.
This particular supernova wasn’t rich in hydrogen, and it had previously been assumed that the original star had blown away its hydrogen gas atmosphere. If this was the case, over time, light from the supernova would shock the gas into glowing for us … but that didn’t happen. Now, researchers are looking at this companion and thinking it just might be the hydrogen thief. … And thinking that this kind of gaseous robbery may be happening on a regular basis throughout our universe.
According to researcher Maria Drout, “In recent years many different lines of evidence have told us that stripped supernovae are likely formed in binaries, but we had yet to actually see the companion. So much of studying…
