The victim of a supernova explosion

Scientists are trying to way down the star, which died in the explosion of a supernova that transpires in the past year.

The outbreak of the star was found May 31, 2011 in a rather famous Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), which lies at a distance of 23 million light years from our own Milky Way galaxy. Supernova explosions occur when the supply of fuel massive stars, stellar, completing the life cycle comes to an end, and the stars begin to collapse, turning eventually into a neutron star or black hole.

This supernova, called SN 2011dh, its brightness peaked in June 2011, and now scientists are looking at the photo of the galaxy M51 to flash, trying to figure out which of the stars exploded.

Astronomers led by Bersten Melina (Melina Bersten) from the Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Universe to them. Kavli, Japan, says they have found in old photographs, made ​​by the "Hubble", precursor of a supernova - a yellow giant. This is a rather unusual finding, since the yellow giants - the intermediate phase in the evolution of stars in the red giant - rarely explode as supernovae. Scientists explain the strange behavior of star presence in her hot companion, such as a blue giant, which were pumped out of the mass of the star, thus destabilizing it.

Currently, the researchers plan to begin looking for a companion star that cannot be seen in pictures taken "Hubble", because its maximum radiation should lie not in the visible and the UV part of the spectrum.