(Clearwisdom.net May 30, 2003)

Penetrating thick dust where two galaxies are colliding, radio telescopes have observed the fireworks and afterglow of stars exploding at such an extraordinary rate that astronomers are calling the region a "supernova factory." (AFP photo)

According to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's report on May 27, 2003, Using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope, astronomers discovered the newly-exploded star hidden deep in a dust-enshrouded supernova factory in a galaxy some 140 million light-years from Earth. The dust blocked visible light from the new supernova and others in the factory, preventing astronomers from seeing them with optical telescopes. However, radio emission from the supernovae passed through the dust, granting a glimpse to astronomers using radio telescopes.

The cluster is in an object called Arp 299, a pair of colliding galaxies, where regions of vigorous star formation have been found in past observations. Since 1990, four other supernova explosions have been seen optically in Arp 299.

Supernovae shine fiercely -- as brilliant as 100 billion suns. They occur when the core of a massive star exhausts its fuel and collapses under its own gravity, generating a shock wave that blasts the star's outer layers into space. This ejected material, called a supernova remnant, contains heavy elements, including those essential to life, that are later incorporated into new generations of stars and planets.

The astronomers believe the super star cluster in Arp 299 saw its most recent peak of star formation some 6 - 8 million years ago, and now its massive stars, 10 - 20 times (or more) as massive as the Sun, are ending their lives in supernova explosions.

The VLBA is a continent-wide system of ten radio-telescope antennas, ranging from Hawaii in the west to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the east, providing the greatest resolving power, or ability to see fine detail, in astronomy.

Reference: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0527snfactory.htm

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