The 1,800-year-old remnant of a cosmic object once known as a guest star by ancient Chinese astronomers has been captured by American scientists in a ghostly blood-red glow.
According to Live Science, scientists from the US National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab laboratory have just released a spectacular image of SN 185, a terrifying and magical blood-red “ghost” looming over the region. between the constellations Vien Quy and Semi Sagittarius.
SN 185 is not a new object, but something that lit up Earth’s sky 1,800 years ago, described by US scientists as “rising from the cosmic grave”.
It is one of the objects of longest scientific interest in the world. In 185 AD, Chinese history recorded the sudden appearance of a star-like strange object in a new place where there were no stars before, brightening the Earth’s night sky and then slowly fades for 1 year before disappearing completely.
They call it the “guest star”.
But modern astronomers confirm that it was the first recorded supernova. It is indeed a star, but one that has reached the point of death, exploding 8,000 light-years from Earth.
What remains of the supernova is now very dilute and faint. To capture it, the scientists used NOIRLab’s telescope-mounted Dark Energy Camera located in Chile, compared the historical lines of SN 185, then magnified the image greatly to reveal it. they can be admired.
SN 185 was also identified as a rare Type Ia supernova, one of the brightest in the universe and exploding much faster than the usual Type II. It happens to a star that has died twice: First becoming a white dwarf, then the white dwarf continues to swallow matter from a companion star until its core has critical mass, causing a powerful nuclear explosion.
