Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Applying X-ray Imaging Crystal Spectroscopy for Use as a High Temperature Plasma Diagnostic
Published on: August 25, 2016
An extremely luminous X-ray outburst at the birth of a supernova
A M Soderberg1, E Berger, K L Page
1Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Ivy Lane, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA. alicia@astro.princeton.edu
Abstract:
Massive stars end their short lives in spectacular explosions--supernovae--that synthesize new elements and drive galaxy evolution. Historically, supernovae were discovered mainly through their 'delayed' optical light (some days after the burst of neutrinos that marks the actual event), preventing observations in the first moments following the explosion. As a result, the progenitors of some supernovae and the events leading up to their violent demise remain intensely debated. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of a supernova at the time of the explosion, marked by an extremely luminous X-ray outburst. We attribute the outburst to the 'break-out' of the supernova shock wave from the progenitor star, and show that the inferred rate of such events agrees with that of all core-collapse supernovae. We predict that future wide-field X-ray surveys will catch each year hundreds of supernovae in the act of exploding.
Related Concept Videos
X-ray Imaging
Types of Radioactivity
Alpha (α) decay is the emission of an α particle from the nucleus. For example, polonium-210 undergoes α decay:
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Emission Spectra
Schwarzschild Radius and Event Horizon
The minimum speed required to launch a projectile from the surface of an object to which it is gravitationally bound so that it eventually escapes the object’s gravitational field is called the escape velocity. The escape velocity is independent of the mass of the object. Merging the idea of escape velocity with the...
Nuclear Fusion
A helium nucleus has a mass that is 0.7% less than that of four hydrogen nuclei; this lost mass is converted into energy during the fusion. This reaction produces about...

