NASA just discovered an exploding star spewing vital elements into space

About 3,000 years ago, a star 15 times larger than the sun exploded. Now, scientists are watching it blast valuable elements into space.

Astronomers have a powerful new observatory orbiting Earth, the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Working with NASA, the team has just captured an unprecedented view of the exploding star, now known as supernova remnant N132D, which is about 160,000 light-years away.

Massive stars forge elements deep within their hot, pressurized cores, also in violent stellar explosions when they run out of fuel and collapse. In the image below you can see the remnants of such a star enriching the universe with these elements. The XRISM observatory found evidence of iron, calcium, sulfur, silicon and argon. (You may recall that iron is an important component of our blood.)

“These elements were formed in the original star and then blown away in the supernova explosion,” Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM program scientist, said in an agency statement.

The expanding, bubble-like remnants of gas and elements are approximately 75 light-years across (one light-year is approximately 6 trillion miles).

The inset on the right shows a close-up of supernova remnant N132D.
Image credits: Illustration: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Xtend; Background: C. Smith/S. Points/MCELS Team/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Artistic conception of the XPRISM satellite in orbit.
Image source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Imaging Laboratory

XRISM carries an instrument called a spectrometer, which is useful for spying on the composition of distant cosmic objects. For example, the James Webb Space Telescope has a spectrograph. A spectrometer absorbs light and then separates it into different colors, similar to a prism, with different colors representing different elements. XRISM detects a type of light called X-rays that are emitted into space by different objects in the universe, such as exploding stars and material orbiting black holes.

“XRISM will provide the international scientific community with new insights into the hidden X-ray sky,” Richard Kelley, principal investigator for XRISM at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. “Not only will we You will see X-ray images of these sources and study their composition, motion and physical state.”

The ambitious space mission, launching in September 2023, has just begun. It’s designed to last three years, but given its track record, it’s likely to last longer.