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This image shows an illustration of the constellation Cygnus, which means “swan” in Latin, in the night sky. The supernova remnant in Cygnus, also known as the Veil Nebula, is located near one of the Swan’s wings and is outlined here by a rectangular box. Credit: NASA
A new exploration rocket mission is heading into space to understand how the explosive death of a star lays the foundations for new star systems. The Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Experiment (INFUSE) sounding rocket mission will launch from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on October 29, 2023 at 9:35 pm (MDT).
For several months each year, the constellation Cygnus (Latin for “swan”) swoops across the Northern Hemisphere’s night sky. Just above its wings is Cygnus Loop, also known as the “Veil Nebula,” a popular target for backyard astronomers and professional scientists alike.
The rings of Cygnus are the remains of a star that was once 20 times larger than the Sun. About 20,000 years ago, the star collapsed under its own gravity and exploded into a supernova. Astronomers estimate that the flash would have been bright enough to be seen from Earth during the day, even from 2,600 light-years away.
Supernovae are part of the great life cycle. They blast heavy metals forged in the star’s core onto surrounding clouds of dust and gas. They are the source of all chemical elements in the universe heavier than iron, including those that make up our own bodies. From the stirred up clouds and stellar material left behind after a supernova explosion, gas and dust gradually coalesce to form planets, stars, and new star systems.
“Supernovae like the one that formed the Cygnus ring have a profound effect on the formation of galaxies,” said Brian Fleming, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and principal investigator of the INFUSE mission.
The Cygnus Loop allows us to observe the rare state of supernova explosions that are still in progress. Already over 120 light-years across, the giant cloud continues to expand at about 930,000 miles per hour (about 1.5 million kilometers per hour).
What our telescope captures from the constellation of Cygnus is not the supernova explosion itself. Instead, we see dust and gases that have been superheated by the shock front, glowing as they cool.
“INFUSE will observe how supernovae release energy into the Milky Way by capturing the light emitted at the exact moment the blast hits the pocket of cold gas floating around the galaxy,” Fleming said. he said.
To observe the front lines of that shockwave in its ferocity, Fleming and his team developed a telescope that measures far-ultraviolet light, a type of light that is too energetic for our eyes to see. Did. This light reveals gases at temperatures of 90,000 to 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 50,000 to 300,000 degrees Celsius), still scorching after the impact.
INFUSE is an integrated field spectrometer and will be the first instrument of its kind to fly into space. This instrument combines the strengths of his two methods of studying light: imaging and spectroscopy. A typical telescope has a camera that is good at creating images, showing where the light is coming from and faithfully revealing its spatial arrangement. However, telescopes do not separate light into different wavelengths or “colors.” Instead, the different wavelengths all overlap each other in the resulting image.
spectroscopyOn the other hand, a prism takes a single ray of light and splits it into its component wavelengths or spectrum, just as a prism splits light into a rainbow. This step reveals all kinds of information about the material of the light source, its temperature, and the movement of the light source. However, spectroscopy can only observe a single light beam at a time. It’s like looking at the night sky through a narrow keyhole.
The INFUSE instrument captures an image, “slices” it, and arranges the slices into one giant “keyhole.” The spectrometer then develops each slice into a spectrum. This data can be reconstructed into his three-dimensional images, which scientists call “data cubes”. It’s like a stack of images, each layer revealing a specific wavelength of light.
Using data from INFUSE, Fleming and his team will not only identify specific elements and their temperatures, but also see where those different elements are located along the shock wavefront.
“This is a very exciting project to be a part of,” said lead graduate student Emily Witt, also from UW-Boulder. He will lead much of the assembly and testing of INFUSE and lead data analysis. “The first-of-its-kind measurements allow us to better understand how elements from supernovae mix with the surrounding environment. “This is a big step toward understanding what planets, and even humans like us, will become part of.” ”
To go to space, the INFUSE payload will fly aboard a sounding rocket. These nimble, unmanned rockets are launched into space for a few minutes of data collection before falling back to Earth. The INFUSE payload will fly aboard a two-stage Black Brant 9 sounding rocket to a maximum observation altitude of about 150 miles (240 kilometers) before parachuting back to Earth for recovery. The team hopes to upgrade the equipment and launch again. In fact, parts of the INFUSE rocket itself are reused from his DEUCE mission. launched from australia In 2022.