Exiled Stars Explode Far From Home
Artist’s concept. Image by Dr. Alex H Parker, NASA and the SDSS
Sharp images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope confirm that three supernovae discovered several years ago exploded in the dark emptiness of intergalactic space, having been flung from their home galaxies millions or billions of years earlier.
Most supernovae are found inside galaxies containing hundreds of billions of stars, one of which might explode per century per galaxy.
These lonely supernovae, however, were found between galaxies in three large clusters of several thousand galaxies each. The stars’ nearest neighbors were probably 300 light years away, nearly 100 times farther than our sun’s nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light years distant.
uch rare solitary supernovae provide an important clue to what exists in the vast empty spaces between galaxies, and can help astronomers understand how galaxy clusters formed and evolved throughout the history of the universe.
AstroNews 