Thanks To The Early Warning System, Astronomers Can Predict When Stars Become Supernovas

A engineered image of how a super nova happened. (photo: dock. European Southern Observatory)

JAKARTA - One of the most dramatic cosmic events is a supernova, when a massive star runs out of fuel. Stars explode in enormous bursts of energy that can be seen even in other galaxies.

Astronomers basically know when these supernovae occur, but they can't predict exactly when a particular star will become a supernova. Now, however, a team of astronomers has found an "early warning system" for a star approaching this tipping point.

Astronomers from Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Montpellier simulated the development of a group of pre-supernova stars called red supergiants, which are some of the largest stars, though not necessarily the most massive.

They include our famous neighbor, Betelgeuse. These stars used to be massive stars about eight to 20 times the mass of the sun, but when their fuel ran out, they switched from dry hydrogen to dry helium, and they expanded to larger sizes as they cooled.

An image showing the supergiant star Betelgeuse as revealed thanks to a different advanced technique on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), which allowed two independent teams of astronomers to get the sharpest view of the supergiant star Betelgeuse.

They show that the star has a vast plume of gas almost the size of our Solar System and a giant bubble boiling on its surface. These discoveries provide important clues to help explain how these mammoths released matter at such incredible speeds.

The researchers found that these red supergiant stars suddenly became much dimmer in the last few months of their lives. Their brightness drops by a hundred times because they produce a dusty material that obscures the light they emit, making them appear dimmer. This decreased brightness will be a clue to the upcoming supernova.

“Dense material almost completely obscures the star, making it 100 times fainter in the visible part of the spectrum. This means, the day before the star explodes, you may not be able to see it there again," lead author Benjamin Davies of Liverpool John Moores University explained in a statement, quoted by Digital Trends.

"Until now, we were only able to get detailed observations of the supernova a few hours after it happened. With this early warning system, we can prepare to observe them in real time, point the world's best telescopes at their predecessors, and watch them literally tear apart before our very eyes," he added.