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Cassiopeia A is a Supernova Leaving a Plasmoid Remnant - update at end
This is a sequel to the earlier posts about the Crab Nebula and E0102, both being a supernova and leaving a neutron star, or in EU, a plasmoid.
Cassiopeia A was a bright star at this location recorded in 1630 and in 1680. With that double brightening perhaps this is not a typical supernova.
from Wikipedia: "At any rate, no supernova occurring within the Milky Way has been visible to the naked eye from Earth since [1680]."
In 1964 it was not observed by a rocket checking for X-ray sources.
In 1965 another rocket detected it in X-ray; this source is called Cas X-1 or Cas A.
excerpt from Wikipedia:
[As a radio source] Cas A had a flux density of 2720 ± 50 Jy at 1 GHz in 1980 Because the supernova remnant is cooling, its flux density is decreasing. At 1 GHz, its flux density is decreasing at a rate of 0.97 ± 0.04 percent per year. This decrease means that, at frequencies below 1 GHz, Cas A is now less intense than Cygnus A. Cas A is still the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky at frequencies above 1 GHz.
1999, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory found a "hot point-like source" close to the center of the nebula that is the neutron star remnant left by the explosion.
In 2013, astronomers detected phosphorus in Cassiopeia A, which confirmed that this element is produced in supernovae through supernova nucleosynthesis. The phosphorus-to-iron ratio in material from the supernova remnant could be up to 100 times higher than in the Milky Way in general.
(excerpt end)
my comment:
With the E0102 supernova, the presence of oxygen is assumed to be from only the star's interior and not a product of the supernova. Here, phosphorus was a product of the event.
excerpt from Chandra:
Astronomers have found other elements in Cas A in addition to the ones shown in this new Chandra image. Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and hydrogen have also been detected using various telescopes that observe different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Combined with the detection of oxygen, this means all of the elements needed to make DNA, the molecule that carries genetic information, are found in Cas A.
(excerpt end)
my comment:
The article has much detail about the assumptions of a star's fusion cycle and specific elements.
There are also interesting assumptions about stellar changes before the main event, with the star beginning at a mass 16 times the Sun but somehow "[it] lost roughly two-thirds of this mass in a vigorous wind blowing off the star several hundred thousand years before the explosion" "[so] the doomed star was about five times the mass of the Sun just before it exploded."
These proposed changes in mass have no observed evidence to justify them. The source of the force needed for the 'vigorous wind' which removes many solar masses is not identified.
The actual date of the supernova is not clear. Its first bright phase might be in 1680. It was first observed in X-ray in 1965 but in the year before its location was absent in X-ray.
When was this debris field generated?
The 3-D explosion simulation has a 330-year span for a start around 1680 implying both 1964 and 1965 were long after the explosion which is awkward timing for the start of X-ray emissions.
Near the end of the article is this:
"The different datasets have revealed new information about the neutron star in Cas A, the details of the explosion, and specifics of how the debris is ejected into space."
In EU a neutron star is a plasmoid.
There are separate links in that statement to the details about the neutron star and details about the debris. Each link will be mentioned below.
partial excerpt from the neutron star addition:
This new research has allowed the teams to place the first observational constraints on a range of properties of superfluid material in neutron stars. The critical temperature was constrained to between one half a billion to just under a billion degrees Celsius. A wide region of the neutron star is expected to be forming a neutron superfluid as observed now, and to fully explain the rapid cooling, the protons in the neutron star must have formed a superfluid even earlier after the explosion. Because they are charged particles, the protons also form a superconductor.
Using a model that has been constrained by the Chandra observations, the future behavior of the neutron star has been predicted. The rapid cooling is expected to continue for a few decades and then it should slow down.
(excerpt end)
my comment:
I assume these extreme temperatures come from the plasmoid's plasma flows which have the energy for synchrotron radiation in X-ray.
These physicists are busy developing a model for a neutron star while observing a plasmoid and measuring its plasma behaviors.
another excerpt:
"These neutrinos escape from the star, taking energy with them and causing the star to cool much more rapidly."
my comment:
Proposing a transfer of thermal energy into kinetic energy carried by neutrinos could be a new theory with no observed evidence. However the stability of a huge entity of only neutrons with no proton having a strong magnetic field s is also unverified.
This story included another new theory: "Evidence for a bizarre state of matter - known as a superfluid - has been found in Cassiopeia A."
If it is 'bizarre' then the conclusion probably has no precedence in valid physics. This mention of neutrinos for cooling is also bizarre.
A plasmoid is electrically driven so a reduction in its electric current results in a reduction in its radiation. There is nothing bizarre here.
excerpt from the debris addition:
Scientists have combined data from Chandra, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and ground-based facilities to construct a unique 3D model of the 300-year old remains of a stellar explosion that blew a massive star apart, sending the stellar debris rushing into space at millions of miles per hour.
(excerpt end)
my comment:
This 'debris' page is worthwhile for the X-ray image of the 'debris field' which is roughly a sphere.
The entire field is dominated by filaments, even the entire circumference.
From the image, one cannot tell if this is only a hollow shell or whether there are any plasma filaments inside, as seen to the ring around E0102. Unlike E0102, the debris field for Cas A looks symmetrical.
The 'debris field' for each supernova is dominated by plasma filaments.
This supernova is an active electrical entity, not just remnants of a catastrophic explosion.
Addition to the post:
The superfluid reference brought to mind liquid metallic hydrogen.
That is the solar model by Crothers and Robitaille.
Perhaps there is another interpretation of Cas A.
a)
The remnant at the core is the original star, composed of condensed matter. This star as condensed matter is dense but certainly not just neutrons.
What cosmologists call a neutron star is a condensed matter star, I made a mistake to follow the distracting claim there is a neutron star here. The original star was and is a conventional star, never a neutron star.
b)
There is a huge plasma cloud near this central star.
It is a plasma entity with many filaments maintaining its integrity.
If this plasma cloud condenses then the result is literally condensed matter.
c)
The result is the basis for a new star.
One possible conclusion:
This supernova at Cas A is the splitting of the original star into two stars.
The second star is still condensing.
The star at the core is sometimes a pulsar.
That star has a plasma cloud separated from it. This is literally charge separation.
A possible explanation is the pulsar is the periodic electrical interaction, like a capacitor, with its plasma cloud.
Cas A is the observation of a binary star being created.
That conjecture is interesting!
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