J. Sollerman

The explosion of a massive star is not just a flash: it's a blow to the surrounding gas. But until now, no one had looked at how the gas itself moves at the sites of such explosions. Now astronomers have gathered data on 33 nearby supernovae and for the first time measured the turbulence of the cold molecular gas around them.

In the cosmic forge, stars do not melt iron but atomic nuclei. An ordinary furnace can do that, but sometimes the heat becomes so intense that the furnace blows itself apart. That seems to be exactly what happened with supernova SN 2024afyu. Its spectrum shows sulfur and silicon lines that leave no doubt: several solar masses of these elements were forged inside.