NASA Hubble Space Telescope Finds Star Trying to Revive Companion in Supernova Aftermath

NASA Hubble Space Telescope discovered a supernova companion star that had previously been obscured by the glare of the celestial explosion.

It is the first time astronomers have directly observed a supernova, which occurs when a star loses its whole outer gas envelope before exploding, as predicted mathematically.

Researchers published their study, "The Candidate Progenitor Companion Star of the Type Ib/c SN 2013ge," in Astrophysical Journal Letters published the team's paper.

(Photo : NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI))
This artist's illustration shows supernova 2013ge, with its companion star at lower right. The companion star is impacted by the blast wave from the supernova, but not destroyed. Over time astronomers observed the ultraviolet (UV) light of the supernova fading, revealing a nearby second source of UV light that maintained brightness. The theory is that the two massive stars evolved together as a binary pair, and that the current survivor siphoned off its partner's outer hydrogen gas shell before it exploded. Eventually, the companion star will also go supernova.

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Finds Supernova Without Hydrogen

The hydrogen loss was unknown for that incident, according to News 9 Live. Therefore, scientists used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to look for evidence and test theories to explain these stripped supernovae.

Astronomers discovered numerous elements in a supernova. When no hydrogen is found following a supernova, it suggests that the star's outer layer hydrogen has been stripped away. The hydrogen loss was produced by Supernova (SN) 2013ge.

The latest Hubble data provide the most substantial evidence yet that an unseen companion star siphons off the gas envelope from its partner star before it explodes.

Astronomer Ori Fox of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, lead investigator on the Hubble research program, said in a NASA release: "This was the moment we had been waiting for, finally seeing the evidence for a binary system progenitor of a fully stripped supernova."

He added that the idea is to transfer this field of study from theory to facts and examine how these systems perform in practice.

(Photo : NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI))
This infographic shows the evolution astronomers propose for supernova (SN) 2013ge. Panels 1-3 show what has already occurred, and panels 4-6 show what may take place in the future. 1) A binary pair of massive stars orbit one another. 2) One star ages into its red giant stage, getting a puffy outer envelope of hydrogen that its companion star siphons off with gravity. Astronomers propose this is why Hubble found no trace of hydrogen in the supernova debris. 3) The stripped-envelope star goes supernova (SN 2013ge), jostling but not destroying its companion star. After the supernova, the dense core of the former massive star remains either as neutron star or black hole. 4) Eventually the companion star also ages into a red giant, maintaining its outer envelope, some of which came from its companion. 5) The companion star also undergoes a supernova. 6) If the stars were close enough to each other not to be flung from their orbits by the supernova blast wave, the remnant cores will continue to orbit one another and eventually merge, creating gravitational waves in the process.

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Ultraviolet Emission Causes SN 2013ge to Survive

Dr. Fox and his colleagues analyzed SN 2013ge in ultraviolet light using images from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, SciNews reported.

From 2016 to 2020, they observed the supernova's light diminishing. Still, another nearby source of ultraviolet light at the same location remained bright.

They believe that this underlying source of UV emission is the surviving binary companion to SN 2013ge.

Astronomers previously observed two peaks in the ultraviolet light of SN 2013ge, rather than the single peak seen in most supernovae.

One theory for the double brightening is that the second peak showed when the supernova's shock wave collided with a companion star, according to Dr. Fox.

He added that Hubble's most recent measurements show that the companion star was jostled but not destroyed, despite the hydrogen gas it had drained from its partner.

While further evidence and similar findings are needed, the discovery's implications are important, adding weight to the notion that most massive stars begin and grow as binary systems.

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