Astronomers have found radio signals for the first time in a Type Ia supernova, confirming that not all of them occur from colliding white dwarfs.
For the first time, astronomers have detected the radio signature of a type Ia supernova, i.e. the explosion of a white dwarf. The discovery published in the magazine Nature suggests that this would be even stronger evidence that this type of event is caused by the “theft” of matter from a companion star, and not just the collision of two white dwarfs.
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Stellar evolution models say that a type Ia supernova occurs when a white dwarf star is in a binary system, sharing an orbit with a companion star. While white dwarfs are the remnants of a “dead” star, the companion would still be on the main sequence, fusing elements like hydrogen and helium.
In systems like this, the white dwarf can end up “sucking” matter from its companion, gaining enough mass to fuse elements like carbon back together. This makes it unstable and results in a thermonuclear explosion.
However, this process should emit a fair amount of radio waves, but astronomers have never found any Type Ia supernovae with radio telescopes. To try to explain the supernova of this category observed at other wavelengths, astronomers have proposed some alternatives, such as collisions between two white dwarfs.
Now, a study of the 2020eyj event, detected in a galaxy more than 400 million light-years away, reveals the first Type Ia supernova to emit radio waves. It occurred after helium gas from the companion star was stripped away from the white dwarf and added to its surface, until its mass limit allowed runaway nuclear fusion.
With this, the study shows that not all type Ia supernovae result from the collision of two white dwarfs. Now, astronomers want to know why all the other explosions in this category haven’t emitted any radio waves.
Source: Nature; through: The conversation
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