Zoom to First Kilonova Progenitor System Identified | NOIRLab

Zoom to First Kilonova Progenitor System Identified | NOIRLab

Travel 11,400 light-years: Astronomers using data from the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope at  the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, have made the first confirmed detection of a star system that will one day form a kilonova—the ultra-powerful, gold-producing explosion created by merging neutron stars. These systems are so phenomenally rare that only about ten such systems are thought to exist in the entire Milky Way.

This unusual system, known as CPD-29 2176, is located about 11,400 light-years from Earth. It was first identified by NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Later observations with the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope allowed astronomers to deduce the orbital characteristics and types of stars that make up this system—a neutron star created by an ultra-stripped supernova and a closely orbiting massive star that is in the process of becoming an ultra-stripped supernova itself.

An ultra-stripped supernova is the end-of-life explosion of a massive star that has had much of its outer atmosphere stripped away by a companion star. This class of supernova lacks the explosive force of a traditional supernova, which would otherwise “kick” a nearby companion star out of the system. 

Credit:

CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. Zamani/D. de Martin/N. Bartmann

Duration: 1 minute

Release Date: Feb. 2, 2023

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