加载中…美国国家航空航天局的核光谱望远镜阵列揭开恒星爆炸之谜
(2014-03-03 11:30:14)
标签：
杂谈 |
分类： 科学与技术 |
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恒星如何在超新星爆炸中分崩离析是天文学最大的谜团之一。在美国国家航空航天局（NASA）核光谱望远镜阵列（Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array）的帮助下，这个谜底终于开始被揭开。
高能X射线天文台已绘制出超新星遗迹中放射性物质的第一份地图。对被称为“仙后座A”（Cassiopeia A）的残余物进行的观测显示冲击波可能如何粉碎巨大的垂死恒星。
上图是仙后座A的放射性图。蓝色显示由核光谱望远镜阵列高能X射线观测到的放射性物质。
帕萨迪纳（Pasadena）的加州理工学院（California Institute of Technology）核光谱望远镜阵列首席研究员菲奥娜·哈里森（Fiona Harrison）说：“恒星如同充满气体的球体，因此你可以想像，这些星球在生命结束时发生爆炸，如同一个均匀球以巨大的力量向外膨胀。我们新得到的研究结果显示爆炸的心脏，或者说发动机，是如何被扭曲变形的，可能是因为内部区域在被引爆之前实际上处于激烈翻腾的状态。”
有关这项研究成果的论文刊登在2月20日出版的《自然》（Nature）杂志上，哈里森是共同作者之一。
有关核光谱望远镜阵列对超新星调查的更多详情见美国国家航空航天局的新闻简报。
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/chinese/inbrief/2014/02/20140221293759.html#ixzz2uroaKtYE
NASA’s NuSTAR Untangles Mystery of How Stars Explode
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One of the biggest mysteries in astronomy, how stars blow up in supernova explosions, finally is being unraveled with the help of NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.
The high-energy X-ray observatory has created the first map of radioactive material in a supernova remnant. The results, from a remnant named Cassiopeia A, reveal how shock waves likely rip apart massive dying stars.
Shown above is the radioactivity map of Cassiopeia A. The blue color shows radioactive material mapped in high-energy X-rays by NuSTAR.
“Stars are spherical balls of gas, and so you might think that when they end their lives and explode, that explosion would look like a uniform ball expanding out with great power,” said Fiona Harrison, the principal investigator of NuSTAR at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “Our new results show how the explosion’s heart, or engine, is distorted, possibly because the inner regions literally slosh around before detonating.”
Harrison is a co-author of a paper about the results appearing in the February 20 issue of Nature.
For more on NuSTAR’s investigation of supernovas, see the NASA press release.
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/inbrief/2014/02/20140220293698.html#ixzz2urobYRlC
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