Scientists discover a “perfect” explosion in space that “has no explanation”
Scientists have discovered a "perfect" explosion in space 140 million light-years from Earth, which formed a sphere of perfect symmetry that had no explanation.
The explosion, known as a kilonova, also called a macronovae or macronovae, originated from two neutron stars that collided while orbiting each other, creating a magnetic bomb when collapsing, but the result should have been a flat cloud according to the laws of physics.
For years, scientists have tried to understand the nature of macronovas. They are among the most powerful explosions in the universe, create the harshest physical conditions in the universe, and as such are responsible for everything from black holes to gold.
Much of the kilonova event remains a mystery to scientists, including what the explosions themselves might look like.
Scientists have assumed that it must be flat and of asymmetric scales, which is consistent with expectations regarding models of such explosions.
Now, new research by astrophysicists from the University of Copenhagen claims that the explosion did, in fact, form a nearly perfect, perfectly symmetrical sphere.
Scientists do not know how this is possible, so they suggested that it must be the result of unknown physics.
Darach Watson, assistant professor at the Niels Bohr Institute and co-author of the study, said: “No one expected the explosion to look like this. It doesn't make sense for it to be spherical, like a ball. But our calculations clearly show that. This probably means that the theories and simulations of the kilonova that we have been studying for the past 25 years lack important physics.”
The nature of this new physics is still unclear. Scientists pursued a number of possible explanations, such as the idea that the explosion could include some kind of "magnetic bomb" in its center that blows everything up from the inside, but some conflict with other models and no satisfactory explanation was found.
The unexpected shape may also aid in other work, including solving a long-standing mystery about how fast the universe is expanding. This speed is one of the most fundamental measurements in physics, but the different measurements are inconsistent, creating yet another mystery.
There is a great deal of debate among astrophysicists about how fast the universe is expanding. Velocity tells us, among other things, how old the universe is. The two existing ways of measuring it differ by about a billion years.
"The spherical shape tells us that there is likely to be a lot of energy in the collision core, which is not expected," explained Albert Sneben, a student at the University of Copenhagen and first author of the study.
Currently, scientists use a variety of objects in space to measure that speed, and calculate the distance between these objects and how they have changed. A kilonova could be another useful addition to that group of objects, providing another measurement.
Professor Watson said: “If it is bright and mostly spherical, and if we know how far away it is, we can use a kilonova as a new way to measure distance independently, and this is a new kind of cosmic ruler. And knowing the shape is crucial here, because if you have an aspherical object, it emits differently, depending on your angle of view. The spherical explosion provides greater measurement accuracy.”
The kilonova was first observed in 2017, 140 million light-years away, allowing scientists to collect the first data for this type of event, which was made using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, along with data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
And this data continues to provide new insights like this for scientists who continue to try to understand it.
In the coming years, scientists hope to gather information on more kilonovae, including from LIGO observatories that detect ripples in the fabric of space-time. With more information about these explosions, scientists will be able to learn more about them, including how they got their unexpected and unexplainable shape.
The detailed results of the study have been published in the journal Nature.
Source : websites