Space image: Carina Nebula: 14,000+ Stars

October 17, 2011

Space image: Carina Nebula: 14,000+ Stars

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Image Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/L. Townsley et al.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Carina Nebula is a star-forming region in the Sagittarius-Carina arm of the Milky Way that is 7,500 light years from Earth and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has detected more than 14,000 stars in the region.

Chandra's X-ray vision provides strong evidence that massive stars have self-destructed in this nearby star-forming region. Firstly, there is an observed deficit of bright X-ray sources in the area known as Trumpler 15, suggesting that some of the massive stars in this cluster were already destroyed in supernova explosions. Trumpler 15 is located in the northern part of the image and is one of ten star clusters in the Carina complex.

The detection of six possible , the dense cores often left behind after stars explode in supernovas, provides additional evidence that supernova activity is increasing up in Carina. Previous observations had only detected one neutron star in Carina.

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Bog_Mire
Oct 17, 2011

Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
7500 LY away and 14000 stars in the "region". what chances of life out there somewhere?
Drumsk8
Oct 17, 2011

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"The detection of six possible neutron stars, the dense cores often left behind after stars explode in supernovas, provides additional evidence that supernova activity is increasing up in Carina. Previous observations had only detected one neutron star in Carina"

Ok so if there was supernova's popping off wouldn't they have been detected with WISE or other instruments. I conjecture that they didn't properly detect the supernova core's in previous studies.
stellar-demolitionist
Oct 18, 2011

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
"The detection of six possible neutron stars, the dense cores often left behind after stars explode in supernovas, provides additional evidence that supernova activity is increasing up in Carina. Previous observations had only detected one neutron star in Carina"

Ok so if there was supernova's popping off wouldn't they have been detected with WISE or other instruments. I conjecture that they didn't properly detect the supernova core's in previous studies.


The most likely scenario is that the NSs (if they are NSs) were formed in supernovae many thousands of years ago. The report says nothing of detecting a SN remnant, so the explosion was likely quite long ago (on human scales). Even for two nearly identical stars formed at the same time, the supernovae may be thousands of years apart.
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