An amateur astronomer has discovered a once-in-a-decade supernova. Scientists hope to figure out how dying massive stars give rise to strange objects such as neutron stars and black holes.
On May 19, seasoned supernova spotter Koichi Itagaki spotted something strange: a bright new pinprick light in a spiral galaxy called M101. About 21 million light-years away from Earth, the new supernova, now officially named SN 2023ixf, is the closest explosion in five years and the second closest in the past decade, according to NASA. It is said that
“It took me about five minutes to confirm that it was a supernova,” says Itagaki, who has claimed 172 supernova discoveries since starting the hobby in 2000. “The discovery was made in bad cloudy weather. We were lucky.”
Scientists are excited about this discovery. Many have spent the last few days lining up all available telescopes to witness the celestial fireworks and enjoying the incoming observations. “Honestly, I was too excited to sleep,” says Yvette Sendes, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics. Harvard and Smithsonian Universities are already helping plan multiple studies of supernovae by radio observatories. “Now data collection is important.”
The excitement stems from what a supernova really is and what fate it holds. This phenomenon is a Type II supernova, which occurs when a massive star at least eight times the size of the Sun runs out of fuel. Stars can no longer withstand their own gravity and collapse into ultra-dense remnants such as black holes and neutron stars, blowing debris and radiation into space.
Scientists know the basics of the process, but they never turn down more supernova data. “It took astronomers 50, 60 years to understand the death of these giant stars,” said Shrinivas Kulkarni, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology and principal investigator of the Zwicky transients. “We’ve been spending a lot of time, because this is the gateway to creating neutron stars and black holes.” A facility in California that searches for supernovae, among other short-lived astronomical events.
And SN 2023ixf will be an important addition to astronomers’ supernova roster, thanks to a combination of its close location and early detection that occurred before the supernova reached its peak brightness and began to fade. “In terms of all of the ascent and subsequent decay of the supernova itself, and the different stages of the supernova itself, this is probably the most studied supernova,” Sendes said.
In addition, M101, better known as the Windmill Galaxy, is a particularly valuable deep object in a part of the sky that is popular with amateur astronomers, so they want to track stars that have exploded in existing stars. For scientists, it is likely. data. “This is very useful for models that understand the story of stars before they die,” says Sendes.
And the supernova’s close proximity may also allow astronomers to collect enough of its light to capture a rainbow-like spectrum, a wavelength-based resolution of electromagnetic radiation. Because all matter absorbs or emits its own characteristic wavelengths of light, researchers can use the spectrum from this supernova to determine what and how much it exhaled into its surroundings. increase. “It’s really cool to be able to look at the elements in the material ejected by supernovae,” said Sanjana Curtis, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago.
A third reason astronomers are particularly excited about this discovery is cosmic coincidence. This is her second large supernova to occur in the M101 galaxy in recent years. In 2011, scientists observed a Type Ia supernova. This supernova occurs when a stellar corpse known as a white dwarf steals so much material from its companion that the thief becomes unstable and explodes.
“There are two major families of supernovae, Type I and Type II, and we were pleasantly surprised to discover one supernova from each in this galaxy,” Kulkarni said.
But nothing is perfect. New supernovae are not everything scientists dream of. One day they hope to capture neutrinos (ghostlike uncharged particles) and gravitational waves (ripples in the fabric of spacetime) produced by massive star explosions. But we will need even more luck than Mr. Itagaki last week. SN 2023ixf was still too far for existing neutrino and gravitational wave detectors to measure.
M101 appears in the sky near the handle edge of the Big Dipper in Ursa Major. The supernova can now be seen with a modest backyard telescope and is expected to stay bright for several months.
“Especially if people were observing on the night of the discovery, it could actually be very useful scientific data, and even end up in a paper,” Sendes said, adding that observations noted that the data from the recent night could be submitted to the American Society of Scientists. A variable star observer.
“In astronomical terms, it’s rare to catch a glimpse of something so spectacular and dramatic happening nearby. This event may not happen again in ten years, so people miss it.” I don’t think it should,” Curtis said. “So if you have a telescope, you’ll want to point it at M101 now.”
