Discovery of Two New Supernovae will help Further Scientists’ Understanding of Space

Two new supernovae have been identified by researchers at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The older of the two has been given the colloquial name ‘Everest’ alongside its official name, Supernova 2013X. It is estimated to have exploded about 450 million years ago when life on Earth was clustered around the seas and shorelines. The other supernova, nicknamed ‘Sherpa’, dates from a slightly more recent time in the Earth’s history, when dinosaurs roamed the planet.

Both of these recently discovered supernovae resulted from the explosion of a white dwarf star that started rapidly pulling in material from other stars until, unable to support its own weight, it exploded in a huge supernova explosion. These type 1A supernovae are called standard candles because they all start off with a fairly similar intensity, which decreases as they get further from the Earth. Therefore measurements of the intensities of these explosions can be used to calculate their distance from the Earth and the speed at which they are accelerating away from us.

Although hundreds of supernovae are discovered each year, they all help to further scientists understanding of the size and make-up of space. ‘Everest’ is particularly interesting to scientists because it is in a relatively empty portion of the sky and is the result of two white dwarf stars colliding and merging.