Back in September 2011 one of our former members Chris Thayer, caught an image of a super nova in M101.
In November 2022 at a talk given by Mark Sullivan from the University of Southampton, on studying Dark Energy through type 1a supernovae, revealed more about Chris’ capture when this event was used as an example.
Type 1a supernovae are used as standard candles to measure distance and there are two mechanisms for triggering the explosion
- A white dwarf pulls material from a larger binary companion
- Two white dwarf stars in a binary system merge
The white dwarf is effectively a dead star and does not normally show up in observations, but a larger companion can be seen. In his presentation, Mark showed an image from the Hubble Telescope of the exact position of the supernova, after the event and there is no star visible. Therefore the supernova Chris imaged, had to be the product of the merger of two white dwarf stars.
It was both interesting to learn more about an event that was very exciting at the time, and a great reason to reconnect with Chris with the update!
Image credit: Chris Thayer
By Danny Thomas
Nov 2022