Black hole breakthrough
Updated on 24 July 2008
Scientists from Queen's University are one step closer to revealing the secrets of the cosmos following a major study of x-rays in space.
It was revealed that astronomers at the Belfast university have made a potentially ground-breaking discovery regarding the link between the death of stars and the birth of black holes.
Dr Stefano Valenti from Queen's Astrophysics Research Centre (ARC) said the team had found a new type of supernova which could be the missing link in understanding what happens after a star explodes.
He said: "While studying a supernova in a spiral galaxy 90 million light years away, a Nasa satellite witnessed a very rare five-minute burst of x-rays, the like of which had never been recorded before.
"This was from another location in the same galaxy which turned out to be a new supernova, now known as Supernova 2008D or SN2008D.
"We co-ordinated an observational campaign to track SN2008D and began to piece together the data collected over one month, along with computer modelling, to understand the story of this explosion and the origin of the rare x-ray burst."
As well as shedding light on the production of black holes the discovery also aids understanding of how the chemical elements which surround us are created.
Professor Stephen Smartt from ARC, and another member of the team which was made up of European and Asian scientists, said: "Discoveries such as these will enable us to continue to make great advances in our understanding of space and in doing so, the world around us."
It is thought that a gamma ray burst close enough to Earth could possibly cause mass extinctions and damage to the ozone layer, however this is believed to highly improbable as such explosions are very rare.
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