Washington. Astronomers have discovered for the first time a star system that will one day produce a super-powerful kilonova explosion, from which gold is about to emerge. According to a report in India Today, scientists have discovered two neutron stars which will soon collide with each other and merge. This would be one of the most powerful explosions in the universe.
What makes this discovery extremely unique is that only 10 such systems have been detected in the depths of the universe. Astronomers used the SMARTS 1.5-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to uncover the binary star system. This system is located about 11,000 light-years from Earth in our Milky Way galaxy and the newly discovered system has all the right ingredients to be a kilonova event. The findings of this research are published today in the journal Nature.
This CPD-29 2176 system was first identified by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and later analyzed by the SMARTS 1.5-meter telescope. This allowed astronomers to identify the orbital characteristics and the types of stars that make up this system.
They found that the system contains a neutron star that was created by an ultra-striped supernova and a nearby orbiting massive star that is in the process of becoming an ultra-striped supernova. The researchers said that an ultra-stripped supernova is the explosion of a massive star at the end of its life. Astronomers are excited by this kilonova event because it could reveal the mystery of how kilonovae form and shed light on the origin of the heaviest elements in the universe.