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28-01-2010
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A supernova faster than the others: the EVN+GBT array detects a mildly-relativistic outflow

Submitter: Zsolt Paragi
Description: Massive stars end their life in a brilliant flash, overshining billions of the neighbouring stars for a very short time. In supernovae, as we call them, the outer layers are expelled at a velocity of about 3 percent of the speed of light. In comparison gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most luminous explosions in the universe, produce well collimated highly relativistic outflows (jets) pointing right towards us. A sub-group of GRBs has been thought to be related to the death of massive stars. But is there a link in between these two phenomena: can ordinary supernovae produce jets (albeit less powerful) as well?

It seems they can. JIVE and ASTRON scientists, collaborating with astronomers in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, observed Supernova 2007gr with the European VLBI Network (EVN), and two months later with the EVN and the Green Bank Telescope in the USA. These observations indicate that SN 2007gr expanded faster than half of the speed of light! This result is published in today's issue of Nature. The real-time e-VLBI capability of the EVN and the Westerbork Synthesis Array Telescope in the Netherlands played an important role in this discovery.
Copyright: JIVE/ASTRON
 
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