Australian scientists recently made a serendipitous discovery of a symmetrical supernova in space–quite the alliterative story. The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Evolutionary Map of the Universe, a powerful radio telescope, detected a ball of expanding material in the Milky Way. Nicknamed Teleios–the ancient Greek word for “perfection”–the object was identified as a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR).
Interestingly, Teleios is almost perfectly symmetrical and only glows in radio wavelengths. This indicates that Teleios might have come from one of the brightest types of supernova– Type Ia. However, scientists haven’t nailed down the sphere’s age and distance from Earth yet. Because of its type, they have determined that Teleios is either closer to earth (around 7,175 light-years away) and young (less than 1000 years) or farther away (around 25,1114 light-years away) and older (more than 10,000 years). However, both of these scenarios assume the object would give off X-rays as well. Because of this inconsistency, some researchers believe Teleios may be the remnant of a Type Iax supernova, which would place the sphere much closer to Earth (around 3,262 light-years away) and smaller (around 11 light-years across).
While many objects in space appear symmetrical, it is actually very uncommon for supernova remnants to expand symmetrically. Because of its unique shape and mysterious light emissions, Teleios represents an exciting discovery from a relatively new piece of space technology.
