ESO's Very Large Telescope uncovers supernovae secrets

Video Credit: ESO/T. Pessi et al.

The European Southern Observatory's Picture of the Week features an animation of nearby galaxy NGC3456 in thousands of different wavelengths of light.

Captured with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), this animation is part of observations of more than 100 galaxies aimed at discovering the properties of massive stars that could influence whether or not they end their lives in a spectacular supernova explosion.

2/ By comparing the explosion sites to all other regions within those galaxies, the study found that the proportion of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium influences whether a supernova will happen.More info: https://t.co/5POogBZt0d

— ESO (@ESO) November 6, 2023

"Core collapse supernovae are the extremely energetic deaths of massive stars, those with eight times or more mass than the Sun. Aside from their sheer size, the exact properties, such as chemical makeup, of the stars that die as supernovae are poorly understood because we rarely get to see them before they explode. But, we can study the explosion sites," the ESO wrote in a post on Monday.

This study, led by former ESO student Thallis Pessi at the Universidad Diego Portales (Chile), has precisely done that. By analysing galaxies where supernovae have occurred and comparing the explosion sites to all other regions within those galaxies, the team found that the proportion of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium influences whether a supernova will happen - massive stars born out of gas with a lower abundance of these elements are more likely to explode as supernovae.

The team was able to map the chemical composition of these galaxies, thanks to VLT's Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument, which breaks the light coming from every location within its field of view into a rainbow or spectrum.