Incredible pictures show the huge explosion caused by two stars smashing into each other

ASTRONOMERS have captured the incredible moment two stars collided 500 years ago to cause a spectacular explosion still visible from Earth.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Incredible pictures show the huge explosion caused by two stars smashing into each other

ASTRONOMERS have captured the incredible moment two stars collided 500 years ago to cause a spectacular explosion still visible from Earth.

We had a bit of discussion of this on chat. This isn’t like any astronomical image I’ve seen before, so what does it look like in visible or infrared? I’m still confused, the image is supposed to be from Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC1) but I can’t find where that is in the Orion Nebula.

Perhaps this will help to make sense of it.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.03134.pdf

Wish we had better zoom.

Vantablack Version 2 is out now.

Tau.Neutrino said:

What if aliens are observing the universe from outside it?

I wrote a science fiction story about that. It was far too crap to publish.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Incredible pictures show the huge explosion caused by two stars smashing into each other

ASTRONOMERS have captured the incredible moment two stars collided 500 years ago to cause a spectacular explosion still visible from Earth.

Looking up lead author Jahn Bally, leads to a number of related articles with intriguing titles.

• Filamentary structure in the Orion molecular cloud
• Photoevaporation of disks and clumps by nearby massive stars: application to disk destruction in the Orion Nebula
• Disks, microjets, windblown bubbles, and outflows in the Orion nebula
• Chandra Orion ultradeep project: observations and source lists
• JCMT/SCUBA submillimeter wavelength imaging of the integral-shaped filament in orion
• Externally illuminated young stellar environments in the Orion Nebula: Hubble space telescope planetary camera and ultraviolet observations
• Overview of the Orion complex
• Irradiated Herbig-Haro jets in the Orion Nebula and near NGC 1333
• Explosive Outflows Powered by the Decay of Non-hierarchical Multiple Systems of Massive Stars: Orion BN/KL
• The Birth of High-Mass Stars: Accretion and/or Mergers?

Let’s start with Overview of the Orion complex

Orion is the best studied region of star formation in the sky. Its young stars and gas
provide important clues about the physics of star formation, the formation, evolution,
and destruction of star forming clouds, the dynamics and energetics of the interstellar
medium. In this chapter, we start with an overview of the Gould’s Belt that establishes the
context in which nearby star forming regions must be understood.

The paper includes some darn good explanatory images and sketches. If I wasn’t feeling so tired, I’d copy figures 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9/10, 14 here for you.

I still want to say more about this.

mollwollfumble said:

I still want to say more about this.

I keep looking at this, and keep saying to myself that this is now what the collision between two stars should look like.

Taking the least likely scenario first -

• Two equal mass stars central impact – result would be disk-like with the disk radiating many streamers.
• Two unequal mass stars central impact – result would be cup-like with the edge of the cup radiating many streamers.
• Two equal mass stars off-centre impact – just two equal streamers in opposite directions.
  Most common case would be -
• Two unequal mass stars off centre impact – either just one streamer or one long streamer and one short streamer.

None of those scenarios look anything like the above image.

mollwollfumble said:

mollwollfumble said:

I still want to say more about this.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/2fb420cd4361da6fc159b41fcb8e3202

I keep looking at this, and keep saying to myself that this is now what the collision between two stars should look like.

Taking the least likely scenario first -

• Two equal mass stars central impact – result would be disk-like with the disk radiating many streamers.
• Two unequal mass stars central impact – result would be cup-like with the edge of the cup radiating many streamers.
• Two equal mass stars off-centre impact – just two equal streamers in opposite directions.
  Most common case would be -
• Two unequal mass stars off centre impact – either just one streamer or one long streamer and one short streamer.

None of those scenarios look anything like the above image.

> this is now what the collision …

oops

this is not what the collision …