Question

4) [15 pts] An astronomer claims to have discovered a Type II supernova in a globular cluster (a group of very old stars) Is this possible? Why or why not? Another astronomer claims to see a Type Ia supernova in a starburst galaxy which is young and still have a lot of star formation activity. Is this possible? Why?

Answer 1

A Type II supernova is thought to be produced when a massive star explodes. Since massive stars in globular clusters completed their evolution a long time ago (massive stars only live for approximately a million years while globular clusters are extremely old and have ages of about 10 billion years), we would not expect to see a Type II supernova in a globular cluster today. One might occur in a very young (open) cluster, where very massive stars might just be completing their life cycle.

Type Ia supernovae basically occurs in type of binary star system in which one member is white dwarf. But in case of starburst galaxy all the stars are young star in lot of formation of star takes place. But there is some proof from research paper that they found some starburst galaxy in which they observe supernovae 1 explosion.

plz like