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Supernova seen through γ-ray eyes

Nature volume 512, pages 375–376 (2014)Cite this article

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Observations of γ-ray photons from a type Ia supernova indicate that stellar explosions of this kind get their energy from sudden thermonuclear fusion in the progenitor star. See Letter p.406

On page 406 of this issue, Churazov et al.1 report a great discovery — not because it is a surprise, but precisely because it is not. The researchers have detected γ-ray emission lines from the type Ia supernova 2014J in the nearby galaxy M82 using the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL spacecraft. For decades, astronomers have been working out the physical picture for this type of exploding star on the basis of the optical light it emits. The authors' study confirms directly the most fundamental idea in that picture by observing a supernova in the γ-ray range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The γ-rays they observed in the months after the supernova explosion were produced, as expected, by the radioactive decay of isotopes fused in a thermonuclear flame that destroyed a compact star.

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Figure 1: Supernova SN 2014J in nearby galaxy M82.

NASA/ESA, Ryan J. Foley & Curtis McCully

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  1. Robert P. Kirshner is at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.,

    Robert P. Kirshner

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  1. Robert P. Kirshner
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Correspondence to Robert P. Kirshner.

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Kirshner, R. Supernova seen through γ-ray eyes. Nature 512, 375–376 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/512375a

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