Supernova Exhaled Carbon Monoxide express
When a massive star runs out of fuel, it sheds its hydrogen envelope and explodes, like a final, desperate exhale. That’s exactly the kind of supernova (type Ib) astronomers observed. 62 days after the blast, in the cooling debris, they caught a faint infrared glow: it turned out to be the signature of carbon monoxide (CO). The material was hurtling at a terrifying 6,000 kilometers per second — fast enough to cover the Earth–Moon distance twenty times in an instant. Because of this speed, its spectroscopic fingerprint was blurred into a broad hump. Around it, cosmic dust glowed at 637°C, and helium lines confirmed the explosion’s class.
The breath of dying stars: that's what the world is made of.
The amount of carbon monoxide in SN 2024rbc is so vast that its mass exceeds the weight of Earth's entire atmosphere by billions of times. Yet compared to the star's mass, it's just a trace impurity.
The phrase 'we are all made of stardust' is not just a metaphor. In the movie 'Interstellar,' this idea resonates with particular poignancy.