Published: 29th July, 2024, Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics (ASIAA), Taiwan

Supernova explosions are the most spectacular endings for massive stars, with the stars ending their lives in a cataclysmic self-destruction that releases luminosity equivalent to billions of suns, illuminating the entire universe. This explosion simultaneously ejects the heavy elements formed within the star, laying the foundation for the birth of new stars and planets, and is one of the keys to the origin of life. Therefore, supernovae have become one of the forefront topics in modern astrophysics.

The latest large-scale supernova survey projects are accumulating observational data at an astonishing rate. However, many of the published papers on these observations focus only on the characteristics of individual supernovae, lacking detailed models to discuss the origin and physical properties of their progenitor stars. This often leaves our understanding of these supernova observations feeling incomplete.

A research team led by Mr. Kai-An You and Dr. Ke-Jung Chen from ASIAA established more than 1152 sets of advanced stellar evolution and supernova explosion models, successfully calculating a comprehensive database of supernova multi-band light curves and conducting detailed comparisons with observational data. These findings help us further understand the impact of stellar parameters on supernova observations and, for the first time, systematically explore the observational data of Type IIP supernovae and the evolution of their progenitor stars. They found that the metallicity and spin of massive stars have a significant impact on stellar winds, which dominate the mass of the progenitor star before the explosion. On the other hand, the explosion energy and the yield of radioactive isotopes produced will further determine the luminosity and brightness duration of the supernova.

The first author of the paper, Kai-An You, is currently a sophomore in the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Tsing Hua University. He began this research project in his second year of high school and, after more than four years of effort and dedication, has developed a high school science project into a cutting-edge research topic, publishing his research results in an international journal, which is truly exceptional. "This research lays a solid theoretical foundation for the currently known Type IIP supernova observations," said the co-author Professor Yen-Chen Pan from the Graduate Institute of Astronomy at National Central University. "This research helps us systematically understand the observational data of supernovae and the underlying physical mechanisms," commented Dr. Ke-Jung Chen, an assistant research fellow at ASIAA.

More Information:

• This research presented in a paper “Modeling the Progenitor Stars of Observed IIP Supernovae" by You et al. has appeared  in the Astrophysical Journal on July 26, 2024.

• Cosmic Explosion Group

Media Contact:

Dr. Ken Chen        Email: kjchen@asiaa.sinica.edu.tw          Tel: +886 2 2366 5457