Supernova Star Explosions - What is It?

Around 400 years ago the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe saw a strange new light in the sky. He recorded where he saw it and now we think we know exactly what he saw. It was a Supernova, a huge star explosion.

A new study confirmed that it was the common kind that involves the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf star with a nearby companion. The reason we know what it is, is that after the Supernova explosion, a light cloud of debris is still visible. We just needed the right equipment. Tycho’s saw the supernova on Nov. 11, 1572.

He thought it was a brilliant new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. The light brightened until it eventually became as bright as the light from Venus. It could be seen for two weeks in broad daylight. After 16 months, it disappeared. Brahe documented this with precision as unlike the moon and the planets, the light’s position didn’t move in relation to the stars. That to him meant it lay far beyond the moon. That was a shock to the contemporary view that the distant heavens were perfect and unchanging. It was unholy to think such a thought.

The event inspired Brahe to commit himself further to studying the stars. His meticulous observations helped lay the foundations of early modern astronomy. The direct light from the supernova swept past Earth long ago. But some of it struck dust clouds in deep space, causing them to brighten. That light echo is still observable, and the new study was based on analyzing the wavelengths of light from that region. There are many such Supernovas and we can sometimes see them with our naked eyes. Two such explosions were seen in 1054 and then another in 1987.

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