Scientists in India have discovered an extremely bright and fast-evolving supernova that generates light with energy borrowed from an exotic type of neutron characterized by a strong magnetic field.
PTI reported that the Department of Science and Technology (DST) revealed that the study of these ancient spatial objects would provide researchers with new insights into the early universe. On January 19, 2020, the Zwicky Transient Facility discovered SN 2020ank.
It was studied by scientists from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) Nainital, a research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), from February 2020 coronavirus lockdown phase of March and April.
The report states that the study is led by Amit Kumar, a Ph.D. student working under S.B. Pandey, and has been published in the Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Society. Scientists also found that the outer layers of the structured onion supernovae had been peeled off, and the core was shining with a borrowed energy source.
The study led by Amit Kumar suggests that its power could be an exotic type of neutron star with an ultra-powerful magnetic field with a total ejected mass of about 3.6- to 7.2-times the mass of the sun. In other science-related news, a study conducted by scientists from the University of Copenhagen revealed what happened to a specific kind of plasma, the first matter ever to be present, during the first microsecond of the Big Bang.
The image used here is merely for representational purposes.