We had to observe 4,000 supernovae to realize that something does not fit the explosions of the white dwarfs

Approximately a century ago we realized that the universe was not static but extended. Some theories even estimate that it does it at increasing speeds, but measuring this speed has become A major headacheas much as explaining the mechanisms that underlie this cosmic inflation.

But maybe we are doing too many turns to the matter.

Not so predictable. A study has observed That the supernovae associated with the white dwarf stars are not as predictable as we believed. The study presents us with a problem, and that is that the role of these explosions as markers of the cosmic distance is staggered now.

Star milestones. Regular and predictable cosmic objects and events are of great help for astronomers when analyzing a vast and diverse cosmos. Know what intensity an object or a distant event shines opens the road to precisely calculating your distance based only on the intensity with which it shines in our sky.

That is why these supernovas had been useful for calculating distances and with it the changes in the distance over time, that is to say the speed. The speed at which the objects of the cosmos move away from each other.

Explosions of the most varied. The new study has revealed that supernovae associated with White dwarfs They are not in this group of regular cosmic events as we believed. Through its observations, the team found “multiple and exotic ways” in which white dwarfs could explode. These included collisions between two stars and star cannibalism in binary systems.

“The diversity of ways in which white dwarfs can explode is much greater than it was previous And until years later ”´, pointed in a press release Kate Maguire, co -author of the study.

4,000 Supernovas. The finding was possible thanks to the use of tools capable of detecting very faint signals and the accumulation of a large amount of data for the sample. The team resorted to the data of the ZTF survey (Zwicky Transient Facity), From which they obtained information from a total of 4,000 supernovae, a sample, they explain, much greater than those previously compiled.

“Thanks to the unique capacity of ZTF to scan the sky quickly and deeply, it has been possible Maguire added.

The details of the study were recently published in a special number in the magazine Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Dark energy. The finding is at the same time a problem and it is that if we lose one of the tools used to calculate the distances in the cosmos. In spite of this, it is great news since knowing that the outbreaks of white dwarf the one that moves away from us.

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Image | Trinity College Dublin