ALMA detects sulfur around rare supergiant stars
AstronomyComments
Predicting a supernova date is a fantasy. We can identify the ingredients, but the actual trigger is far too chaotic for a countdown clock to be reliable.
Suppose the sulfur detected is actually coming from the interstellar medium surrounding the star rather than the star's own evolutionary process. Could the empirical detection be a reflection of the local environment instead of the stellar composition?
I wonder if this ties into the recent shifts in how we model mass loss in supergiants... if the sulfur is concentrated in specific shells, does that change the timeline for when these stars go supernova?
If these sulfur shells really do act as a marker, could we eventually use them to predict the remaining lifespan of these stars with more precision?
We saw a similar rush of excitement when we first mapped oxygen shells around red supergiants a few years ago. The hype eventually settled into a standard calibration tool for stellar wind models.
This is the kind of hard evidence that shuts down the theoretical debates in the literature. Having a concrete chemical marker makes it much easier to categorize these objects in large surveys without relying on guesswork.
It is worth noting that sulfur is an alpha-element, meaning its abundance helps us pinpoint the specific nucleosynthesis pathways occurring in the core. This detection allows us to constrain the temperature and pressure thresholds of the neon-burning phase more accurately.
clarifies the chemical seeding for future planetary systems.