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900-year-old Chinese supernova mystery points to strange nebula - Space.com
Sep 16, 2021 59 secs
Doris Elin Urrutia.

The event, like the famous Crab Nebula-forming stellar explosion of 1054, is one of just a handful of bright nearby flashes noted in historical records, but unlike the Crab Nebula, the 1181 spectacle was tricky to pin down.

These cosmic puzzle pieces led a research team to the ancient flash's likely culprit: a supernova whose remnants now form a fast-expanding nebula called Pa30.

By using that speed and calculating backward, the researchers determined that the nebula would fit a supernova that exploded around 1181.

The team found that Pa30 formed from a rare and relatively faint type of supernova, called a 'Type Iax supernova.' "Only around 10% of supernovae are of this type and they are not well understood!

Scientists also found that Parker's star, one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way, is also a likely counterpart to the supernova.

The nebula and the star are thought to be the result of a massive collision and subsequent merger of two dim stellar corpses known as white dwarfs. .

"This is the only Type Iax supernova where detailed studies of the remnant star and nebula are possible," Ziljlstra added.

Follow Doris Elin Urrutia on Twitter @salazar_elin.

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