Georgia State telescopes capture rare star explosions in groundbreaking study

An international study published in December will help scientists understand the life cycle of stars.

The study published in the journal Nature Astronomy used Georgia State University equipment at the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) to capture images of two stars exploding with unprecedented clarity, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.

The CHARA array uses six telescopes, and CHARA Director Gail Schaefer told GPB the array is limited.

“To catch these nova explosions, you need a combination of something that’s actually a very bright explosion, like angularly,” she said. “So the nova has to be relatively close to us for it to appear bright enough that we can actually see it with a CHARA array.”

During this study, scientists were able to observe various stages of the explosions, and Schaefer said although the first star exploded very quickly, the second star took its time.

“The second one that we caught that year, it was a very slowly evolving nova,” she said. “For that one, it took about 50 days before, like, the outer layers kind of exploded outward.”

The findings challenge the long-held belief that star explosions happen abruptly and provide evidence that they have multiple paths of development, according to a news release.

“This is just the beginning,” said Elias Aydi, lead author of the study and a professor of physics and astronomy at Texas Tech University, in the news release. “With more observations like these, we can finally start answering big questions about how stars live, die and affect their surroundings. Novae, once seen as simple explosions, are turning out to be much richer and more fascinating than we imagined.”