The unpublished video of the explosion of a star 1,200 million light-years – BBC World

Image copyright NASA

Image caption This giant star was 500 times larger than the Sun

At NASA astronomers can not hide his excitement. After two years studying every inch of the skies, they could see what was not seen before. The birth of a supernova

Supernovae occur when a star explodes, and with the help space telescope Kepler, filmed with visible light when it happened .

in the video below you can see the bright flash of the shock wave, known as shock ruptura- that appears with the explosion.

“ to see something that happens in a matter of minutes, as a clash of rupture, you must have a camera to monitor the sky continuously ” he explained professor astrophysics from the university of Notre Dame Peter Garnavich, in a NASA statement.

“it is not known when a supernova will occur, and Kepler allowed us to witness from the beginning.”

Garnavich was who he led the study that Thursday is published in the journal Nature .

the shock wave lasted less than an hour, so to “hunt” this time, the team had to study for more than two years, the light every 30 minutes picked Kepler.

And the effort paid off.

the red supergiants

in 2011, two massive stars, called red supergiant, exploded in the sights of Kepler .

Image copyright NASA

Image caption space telescope captured the light that came when the star exploded.

First, the KSN 2011a, is nearly 300 times the size of our sun and is at a distance of 700 million light years.

and second, KSN 2011d, is about 500 times larger than our star and is located 1,200 million light years.

“ to put these sizes perspective orbit Earth around the sun would fit comfortably within these colossal stars “said Garnavich.

When a star of this size is aging and its energy is exhausted, gravity causes it to collapse.

While the two explosions released a similar energy, could not see a clash of break in the smaller star .

a mystery

Scientists believe this could be due to that was surrounded by a gas that hid the wave when the shock break came to the surface of the star.

Image copyright Thinkstock

Image caption The supernovae study help to understand the origin of life.

“This is the mystery of the results,” said Garnavich. “You look at two supernovas and see two different things, that is maximum diversity”

The study of supernovae is important because all the heavy elements in the universe come from them

“for example, all silver, nickel and copper on Earth, even in our bodies comes from the explosion of dying stars,” said Steve Howell, another NASA scientist.

“life exists because of supernovae,” he said.

the research team Studio Extragalactic Kepler is finishing desgranar data of the first mission of the telescope.

Now the Kepler entered a second phase known as K2 mission. The team hopes to hunt more events supernovas in distant galaxies even more.