The system would alert astronomers when a red supergiant is just months away from exploding.
Scientists have discovered a telltale clue that a star is about to go supernova. The new discovery could help astronomers develop an"early warning system" before one of these cosmic explosions happens that would allow scientists to watch one in real time, a new study suggests.
"Recent studies of supernovae have shown that the star that blew up was nested inside a thick cocoon of material, presumably ejected from the star just before it died," Davies, an astrophysicist at Liverpool John Moores University in the U.K,. told Live Science in an email. Such stars suddenly become around 100 times fainter in visible light in their final few months before they die. This dimming may be caused by a sudden accumulation of material around the star, which obscures its light, though scientists aren’t sure how this happens.
"When you see the supernova this early you see the outer edge of the 'cocoon' illuminated from the inside by the on-rushing explosion," Davies said."By continuously monitoring it [the astronomers] were able to determine the time at which the supernova over-ran the cocoon, and hence determine how far from the star it extended."
"The VRO will be able to see around half the red supergiant stars within around 10 million light-years, allowing us to monitor them every few days or so," Davies said."If we see one suddenly start to dim dramatically this could be an indication that the countdown to a supernova has begun."
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