Supernovae are one of the ways stars stop their liveliness . Incredible fiery explosion rive the wiz apart , bequeath in their wake a neutron star or a black hole surrounded by a nebula of squirt accelerator . They are defining moments , but it ferment out that some star might be faking it .
On May 16 , 2015 , a lambent dingy variable star was seen releasing a huge amount of energy that take care like a supernova . The event , known as SN 2015bh , take away position in NGC 2770 – a galaxy 80 million light - class away . Even though the detections seem square , astronomers are still not certain the wiz actually exploded .
allot to a paper release inAstronomy & Astrophysics , this could be a “ supernova impostor ” . The variable wizard has produced several red eruptions since 1994 . It also had several eruptions in 2015 that were seen as herald to the May explosion .
“ Luminous drab variable stars like this one show two different kinds of eruptions : regular outbursts after which the star returns to its original commonwealth and gargantuan outbreak which alter the star for good , ” lead source Christina Thöne , from the Institute for Astrophysics of Andalucia , say in astatement . “ A prominent model is Eta Carinae , a adept which has already fall back mass equivalent to 40 times the pile of our Sun though winds and eruptions . ”
The team observe the star from the offset of 2015 ( when it had a minor eruption ) and 200 days after the say supernova . They know that the sensation lose luminosity after the consequence and register down colour than before , but they can not be certain the ace actually explode .
The squad suggests that SN 2015bh might become a Wolf - Rayet star , a type of older asterisk rich in threatening elements . The eruption could be the correct mechanics to take out hydrogen , and if it survived the detonation , it could have lost a pregnant clump of its chief element .
“ SN 2015bh is not an isolated typeface and there are peradventure many more similar objective out there that have gone unnoticed , but it seems we have encountered a novel type of astral event , " Thöne added . " Now we call for to uncover the mechanism drive those events and find out why the observed cases show such very similar behavior . "
While SN 2015bh exhibits some unusual patterns , it is not the only supernova impostor – SN 2009ip , for example , erupted in 2012 . The research worker think it is too soon to see what happened and suggest that these objects should be revisited decennium after their eruptions to see what they are becoming .
