James Webb Telescope Captures Image of Supernova That 'Absolutely Shattered' a Star

NAXLAB, 6 months ago

It’s interesting the types of phrasing they use, like shatter. I never think of stars as rigid, more ethereal even though I know how they work

EatYouWell, 6 months ago

Isn’t that kinda the definition of a supernova?

TWeaK, 6 months ago

That was my first thought also - did the supernova shatter a star, or is the supernova literally the result of a star shattering?

Both could be true, it could be that a star went supernova, then the shockwave shattered a star. I CBA to read into it and I’m hoping someone will reply with the answer.

EatYouWell, 6 months ago

I skimmed the article and didn’t see any mention of it affecting a different star, so I’m assuming the latter.

I feel like if it was a binary system that would have been mentioned fairly early in the article

TWeaK, 6 months ago

I wasn’t even thinking a binary system necessarily, just a star that happened to take the shockwave badly. But I suppose it would make more sense for that to happen the closer the nearby star is.