Thermonuclear detonations of White Dwarf Stars are “litium factories,” according to a Gamma-ray signal that it is the blasts using lithium used in our electronics.
Lithium is the most extreme element made by Big Bangproduced also hydrogen and helium. Today, lithium is an integral part of our modern technology, utilized in lithium-ion batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles.
However lithium centers on one of the great mysteries of the cosmos. As The universe Cooled during the instant after the Great Bang, the first elements made. Hydrogen consists of three-quarters of elements, and helium quarters. Then there is lithium, which is a sum of sorting. Despite the view of astronomers in towThey knew that most of them showed evidence for a smaller lithium in their composition than we expected from the amount made in the big bang.
Astronomers explained this by showing how lithium can be left inside a star from outer layers and destroys. However some stars go against grains – young generations more lithium than older stars. Where does this lithium come from?
The main suspect novae. Unlike a supernova, losing a star, a nova is just an explosion on top of a white dwarf with gravity that is targeted by many things from a fellow star. A white dwarf is the core of a DAY-Seability of the star that reaches the end of its life. If it happens, an external layers of sun-like sun-like expand, changing the star in a Red giantthat finally rejects external layers of adrift in space, forming a planet nebula. It finally separated, leaving the white dwarf.
Most of the stars in the universe were found in binary systems, therefore no wonder many white dwarfs have a partner with them. In some cases, the fellow star is almost too much for more compact white dwarf to start stealing object from it.
As the stolen object falls on top of the white dwarf, the temperature and pressure at the point of contact can be as much as thermonuclear reactions – and boom.
Nova explosions could not break a star (even if the longest captives that the whole star explodes as a type IA BAT), but they make it shine in our sky – the word “nova” is Latin for “new” (like new star).
Novae is mean as a source of modern lithium: over time, more stars like the day leads the dwarfs, carrying out more novae and more lithium spreads medium of interstellarSo why young stars have a lot of things. But what is needed is difficult evidence.
In December 2013, Nova V1369 Cen, in the southern hemisphere cooktelation in Centaurus, outbursts and observed in a different telescope, including European Space AgencyIntegral standard (International Gamma-ray atrophysicss Laboratorys) Space Telescope.
In theory, a nova will make lithium if the nova’s beryllium-7 shot through radioactive decay To Lithium-7, Release Gamma Rays with a strong 478 Kev (kiloelectron volts) in the process.
When the V1369 Cen goes Nova in 2013, it is thought that it’s too far for integral to find this spike with gamma rays. However, astronomers led by Luca Izzo in Inaf, the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, used ESA’s observations Gaia Astrometric satellite to show that this is not the case.
“Initially, the estimated distance to V1369 centauri noticed 478 Kev line that was not possible,” As Izzo in a statement (In Italian, Google Translate translates), explaining why it took 12 years to come. “But thanks to the satellite in Gaia, we know that Nova is approaching – about 3,200 years stable – than estimated, possible for integral.”
With realization that the V1369 Cen is in the integral content, new analysis of Izzo’s Team of Innozo old data later found 478 Kev signals. Based on signal vitality, Izzo calculated the team in the order of 10 ^ -8 Solar mass – About 100 million masses of day-value lithium made by Nova. These talls with moderate estimated amounts of lithium produced by V1369 Cen and other novae based on visible observations.
There is a caveat: Gamma-ray signal is not stronger, which means the signal-toister ratio is not completely convincing – with a moment with a 2.4% chance that the signal is not true. It seems like a little possibility, but it doesn’t know – scientists like 5-Sigma detection, meaning that there is a 1.0000% chance to see is not true.
However, that is not to put some astronomers.
“The observation of the line 4788keb is proof of the existence of beryllium-7 in the novae envelope,” says Massimo Della Valle, which is a member of the mother’s mother of inaf. “The fact that infusion was observed equal to the nova time, exactly the expected force and the expected force, that it was a coincidence better than 3-Sigma.”
Astronomers are looking for this evidence for a long time, and while this detection has not confirmed, also gives astronomers to signal the batteries using the batteries you use.
Research was published in June Journal issue Astronomy & Astrophysics.
