28 February (UPI) - New information has been discovered from a stellar
explosion that occurred more than 450 years ago that sent electrons close to
the speed of light.
Scientists
examined
the Tycho explosion remnants using NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry
Explorer. They learned how Tycho accelerates electrons faster than any
particle collider on Earth, approaching the speed of light.
A scholar at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome, which
collaborates with NASA on the IXPE project, said in a statement that Tycho
was one of the so-called historical supernovae and had a long-lasting
societal and even creative effect. "450 years after it first appeared in the
heavens, it's thrilling to be here and see this object again with fresh eyes
and learn from it."
The Tycho supernova blast alone, according to NASA, unleashed as much
energy as the Sun would produce over the period of 10 billion years. Many
people on Earth could see the explosion in 1572.
Astronomers were able to get as near to seeing the cosmic ray source as
they have ever been able to by examining Tycho's magnetic field's
structure.
Patrick Slane, an associate astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics
at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a statement that the
transformation of a supernova remnant into a massive particle accelerator
includes a careful tango between order and disorder. Although IXPE is
demonstrating that there is also a large-scale regularity, or coherence,
involved that extends all the way down to the locations where the
acceleration is occurring, strong and chaotic magnetic fields are still
necessary.
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