Despite lighting up the night sky, astronomers\u00a0could only infer what happens at the early stages of these formidable blasts, as direct observations proved difficult, not least of all because the exploded material appeared as a single point of light impenetrable to finer probing. Now, the new images are allowing them a peek behind the curtain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese observations allow us to watch a stellar explosion in real time, something that is very complicated and has long been thought to be extremely challenging,\u201d said Elias Aydi, lead author of a new study<\/a> published in the journal Nature Astronomy, and a professor of physics and astronomy at Texas Tech University, in a statement<\/a> about the work. \u201cInstead of seeing just a simple flash of light, we\u2019re now uncovering the true complexity of how these explosions unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n Screenshot from paper showing two images of novas, along with an artist’s illustration of what the phenomenon might look like.<\/p>\n The images were primarily taken using a technique known as interferometry, in which multiple sources of light are smashed together to create an interference pattern that astronomers can analyze. This is enabled by collecting data using telescope arrays like CHARA, which is made up of dozens of antennas spread across a large area that, when all trained on the same point in the sky, act as one massive telescope. The CHARA data was then furnished with imaging taken by other telescopes such as NASA\u2019s Fermi telescope, a space lens that watches for high energy emissions known as gamma rays, and the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.<\/p>\n The work revealed that novas are far more complex than we give them credit for, and can\u2019t be reduced to a single, destructive blast. One of the imaged novas, V1674 Herculis, proved to be one of the fastest novas on record, reaching peak luminosity before fading in just several days. It showed two distinct outflows of gas, suggesting that the explosion involved multiple powerful ejections of material that interacted with each other. But what was truly stunning was that these ejections emitted gamma rays which were detected by NASA\u2019s Fermi, showing that the blasts are capable of producing some of the most energetic emissions in the cosmos that are typically associated with black hole-forming supernovas.<\/p>\n The other imaged nova, V1405 Cassiopeiae, seemed to unfold in spectacular slow motion, taking more than fifty days before finally ejecting all of its exploded material. Over the course of that nearly two month period, the white dwarf shrouded itself in a sphere of the stripped gas that eventually swallowed both stars, forming an extremely rare structure called a common envelope<\/a>. Remarkably, when this envelope finally dispersed, the ejection produced its own blast of gamma rays that NASA\u2019s Fermi was able to observe.<\/p>\n That both events produced detectable gamma rays shows that novas are \u201claboratories for extreme physics,\u201d said coauthor Laura Chomiuk, a professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University, in the statement, which could help us \u201cconnect the dots between the nuclear reactions on the star\u2019s surface, the geometry of the ejected material and the high-energy radiation we detect from space.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4ce1528ecea3e9387cd634ccd4b4fccb.jpeg\"\/)
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