Supermassive black hole jets mysteriously ignite nova explosions, Hubble Telescope finds

[Admin]

Hubble Space Telescope observations suggest supermassive black hole jets double the frequency of nova explosions. But how?

Supermassive black hole jets mysteriously ignite nova explosions, Hubble Telescope finds : Read more

 

[Unclear Engineer]

The idea that the jets provide additional material for the white dwarf stars in its vicinity to accumulate on their surfaces seems like a logical hypothesis. But the article says that Alec Lessing is not convinced that is the cause of the more frequent supernovas near the jets. It would have been nice if the article had provided some reason for Lessing's misgivings about the seemingly obvious explanation.

 

[Homer10]

Fusion happens with temperature and pressure. If there is enough pressure and temperature, fusion occurs. If you raise up the temperature by adding a hellacious beam of intense radiation from the SMBH, this raises up the temperature of the star thus increasing the fusion rate thus increasing the temperature further until a runaway thermal nuclear reaction occurs, and KABOOM!!!! Supernova!

 

[Unclear Engineer]

I don't think the article is implying that the excess supernovas are happening in isolation from stars. The density of the ejected jets is not high enough to support a fusion event in free space.

The logical thought would be that the extra matter from the jets is getting drawn into white dwarf stars and accumulating enough to produce thermonuclear explosions on their surfaces - type 1a supernovas. But, that is apparently not a solid conclusion at this point in our discovery.

 

[Questioner]

"...they observed strange blue "transient events" near the black hole, "

Not sure what they are saying there.
Is that a reference to a [super-]nova,
because it sounds like something different.