A Star Just Exploded In A Nearby Galaxy

[n2doc]

Brad Tucker, an astronomer at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, and University of California, Berkeley, told BuzzFeed:

A possible supernova was reported by amateur astronomers from Russia on 22 January and confirmed by multiple sources later that day.

It’s a type 1a supernova, a type of dying star that help astronomers to measure distances in the universe.
It’s the closest supernova of its kind in 30 years, so astronomers are getting pretty excited about it.

more
http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/a-star-just-exploded-in-a-nearby-galaxy

[earthside]

1. Actually it exploded 12 million years ago ...

... as the story at the link indicates.

We are just seeing it now.

And this is considered "close".

Science is amazing.

The other explanation is that since the universe is only about 6,000 years old, 'god' has decided that now is a good time (for some mysterious reason) to fool us into thinking that a distant star has gone supernova.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Speaking of theories...

What if the universe is not expanding?

what if we.... are shrinking?....

[BlueStreak]

5. I think you are onto something.

I have also noticed that gravity is steadily increasing, according to my bathroom scale.

Oh my god. We are all turning into black holes.

[Thor_MN]

9. Unless gravity preferentially pulls on hair, I believe that I am getting taller

at such a rate that my hair can not grow fast enough to keep up. As added proof, the ground is farther away each year.

[Xipe Totec]

4. So, not LBN?

[bananas]

2. "If you have decent binoculars, you should be able to see it now. Here’s where to look."

[Blue State Bandit]

6. Cooling down my 10" Dob to spot this tonight.

Clear and cold here. Should make for a decent view.

[jakeXT]

7. Discovered in London ?

The supernova was bright enough to be discovered with a modest telescope in an unlikely spot: cloudy north London. On 21 January, around 7 pm, Steve Fossey, an astronomer at University College London, was taking students through a routine lesson with a 35-centimetre telescope at the University of London Observatory. Images of M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, appeared on their screens. Fossey noticed something unusual: a star sitting on the edge of the galaxy disc. It did not match Fossey's memory of the galaxy, nor images they looked up on the Internet. "It kind of looked odd," he says.

As the sky grew cloudy, Fossey's students checked their telescope for instrumental errors, and also that the object wasn't an asteroid. Fossey fired up another small telescope at the observatory and confirmed the object's location before clouds closed in at 7:45 pm. Then he emailed colleagues at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

There, Yi Cao took up the baton. Cao, a graduate student in astronomy, sought a spectrum for the object – crucial for confirming the object as a supernova and discerning its type. He quickly arranged to begin observations with a 3.5 meter spectrograph-equipped telescope in New Mexico. Just before 9 am UK time, Cao dashed off a note to the Astronomer’s Telegram, a notification service. He reported that the spectrum matched that of a type Ia supernova, and that it may brighten for another two weeks.

http://www.nature.com/news/supernova-erupts-in-nearby-galaxy-1.14579

[progressoid]

8. Well, that calls for a song

[Judi Lynn]

10. Supernova In Nearby Galaxy Stuns Astronomers

Supernova In Nearby Galaxy Stuns Astronomers

The complete destruction of the white dwarf star in a nearby galaxy could soon be visible through binoculars.

4:44am UK, Saturday 25 January 2014



The explosion of a star in a nearby galaxy is causing amateur astronomers around the world to rush to their telescopes.

Designated SN 2014J the blast was caused by the complete destruction of a white dwarf - a small, incredibly dense star the size of a planet.

The stellar explosion, or supernova, was discovered in the M82 galaxy just 12 million light years away and was photographed by Nasa's Swift space observatory in low orbit around the Earth.

This makes the blast the nearest optical supernova to Earth in 20 years.

Such supernova blasts happen in one of two ways. Either the white dwarf pulled mass from another star until it reached a critical point and exploded, or it simply collided with another star, including possibly a second white dwarf.

More:
http://news.sky.com/story/1200751/supernova-in-nearby-galaxy-stuns-astronomers