A giant star may have destroyed itself in one of the rarest explosions

chasil•about 7 hours ago

There is a wiki on pair-instability supernovas. Antimatter (in the form of positrons) is a key factor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair-instability_supernova

ben_w•about 1 hour ago

My favourite kind of supernova, due to their absurdity.

wglb•1 day ago

Arxiv reprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16487

ck2•about 7 hours ago

I just want to live long enough for space telescopes to evolve exponentially to observe kilonovas in the visual spectrum

I mean laser interferometers are an amazing advancement but just imagine seeing an earth-sized chunk of gold pop out of a kilonova (probably not my lifetime but eventually a human will see it happen)

Thank goodness this administration did not frack with Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, I thought the name alone would make them cancel it or rename it after him, wait maybe I shouldn't even mention that idea...

* https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telesc...

throwaway-away•about 1 hour ago

Check out the aragoscope [1]. It's not planned, but we would already have the technology as it doesn't rely on fragile and heavy lenses to be sent in orbit.

If you look at image 17 you can see that a simulated aragoscope that is in our technical reach could already resolve the Jupiter moons from almost 23 light years away. I hope as well that we will have something comparable while I am still around.

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2014_phase_i...

Levitating•2 minutes ago

Wow, that would be absolutely amazing.

For reference, there are 103 known main sequence stars within 20 light years.[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars

vitally3643•about 1 hour ago

Well I mean I would expect that the gold would be fired off in all directions as more of an atomic mist than a chunk

timwis•about 5 hours ago

Dark Forest theory, anyone?

chasil•about 2 hours ago

Pair-instability can only happen in low-metalicity surroundings.

The big bang created hydrogen, helium, and small amounts of lithium. Any higher elements are created by stars, and a significant presence of those "metals" will take a star down a different path than pair-instability.

Low-metalicity environments are not likely to be friendly to life.

groos•about 5 hours ago

It was a supergiant, hence died at a young age, and unlikely to have evolved life of any kind in its system.

tgrowazay•about 4 hours ago

That’s what Singer’s civilization wants you to think before they send a Photoid or Dual-Vector foil (but later would require a supervisor’s approval which is a PITA)

dotancohen•about 1 hour ago

  > before they send a Photoid

Plenty of services require a Photo ID nowadays.

A giant star may have destroyed itself in one of the rarest explosions

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