'Zombie' stars cast light on dark energy

[SoCalDem]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43932987/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/zombie-stars-cast-light-dark-energy/


This new image of Tycho's supernova remnant, Tycho for short, contains striking new evidence for what triggered the original supernova explosion, as seen from Earth in 1572.

By SPACE.com Staff
updated 7/28/2011 4:36:47 PM ET

Astronomers probing the deepest mysteries of the universe are getting help from "zombie" stars, dead white dwarfs that come back to life in huge explosions. The cosmic zombies are officially known as Type Ia supernovas, and they're helping scientists study dark energy — the mysterious stuff thought to make up three-quarters of the universe, and to be responsible for its accelerating expansion.

"These stars are tools for measuring dark energy," said Andy Howell, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a statement. Howell wrote a review article on the topic for the June 14 issue of the journal Nature Communications. "They're all about the same brightness, so we can use them to figure out distances in the universe." As bright as 1 billion suns

Supernovas are stellar explosions, and they've been observed since at least 1054 A.D., when an exploded star formed what we know today as the Crab Nebula. Type Ia supernovas are a distinct class that originate in binary star systems. At least one of the two stars in such a system is a white dwarf — a tiny, super-dense star that has ceased undergoing nuclear fusion reactions. "That's what our sun will be at the end of its life," Howell said. "It will have the mass of the sun crammed into the size of the Earth."

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[ZombieHorde]

1. Bad ass. nt

[Gabi Hayes]

2. looks like a petri dish seeded with radioactive propecia

[SoCalDem]

3. or some deadly microbe wating to do us all in

:scared:

[HappyMe]

4. Awesome!

Looks like crazy tie-dyed wool.