Infrared flare-ups reveal new events in stars' lives

• Autores: Joshua Sokol
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3123, 2017, pág. 9
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Some things that go bump in the night can only be seen with heat vision. eSPecially Red Intermediate-luminosity Transient Events (SPRITEs), a new class of astronomical explosion, may be showing never-before-seen phases in the lives and deaths of stars. SPRITEs, are undetectable in visible light. They were spotted only when Mansi Kasliwal at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and her team began monitoring 190 nearby galaxies with the infrared Spitzer space telescope in 2014. In the first year, there were 14 odd flashes brighter than novae but fainter than supernovae. Strangely, these events were invisible to optical observatories like the Hubble or Keck telescopes.