The astronomy world is all a-twitter this morning over the discovery of a new supernova in M82, a galaxy that's in our astronomical backyard, "only" 12 million light-years away. And early word is that it appears to be a Type Ia supernova, the kind that's used as a standard candle to measure the expansion of the universe. According to Nick Howes at Remanzacco Observatory, "This is the closest supernova to Earth since the Supernova 1987A and the closest supernova Type Ia since SN 1972E." Even better, the discovery was made by students working with astrophysicist Steve Fossey at University College London.
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Originally Posted by Matthew Francis
The bright circle at image center is a probable white dwarf supernova in M82 ("Cigar Galaxy"); the color-reversed inset shows the location more clearly.
Ernest Guido, Nick Howes, Martino Nicolini
Overnight, astronomers spotted what may be a very close white dwarf supernova—close in cosmic terms at least. This bright explosion, seen in the M82 "Cigar" galaxy, is roughly 12 million light-years away—close enough to be seen with small telescopes and observed in detail by larger instruments. Even amateur astronomers and astrophotographers can see an explosion this bright and close.
By 08:47 UT (3:47am US EST) on January 22, 2014, astronomers working with the ARC 3.5-meter telescope at the Apache Point Observatory reported they had measured the spectrum of the supernova. Based on that data, they identified it as a probable type Ia supernova, meaning it has little hydrogen, but significant amounts of silicon and other heavier elements.
Type Ia supernovae are triggered either by the explosion of white dwarfs that accrete too much matter and exceed their maximum stable mass, or by the collision of two white dwarfs. (That's as opposed to core-collapse supernovae, which are the explosions of stars much more massive than the Sun.) Because they all explode in very similar ways, Type Ia supernovas are "standard candles": objects that can be used to measure distances to very distant galaxies. The use of them to track the expansion of the Universe was recognized by the 2011 Nobel Prize.
While the explosion undoubtedly produced neutrinos, the distance is great enough that any arriving at Earth-based neutrino detectors will likely be swamped by other sources. However, the relative closeness of M82 means that a variety of telescopes, both ground- and space-based, will be able to monitor its evolution over the next few days as the explosion fades. The data will help astronomers distinguish whether it truly is a type Ia (the galaxy it's in makes a core-collapse supernova more probable, but doesn't rule out white dwarfs), and possibly even tell whether one or two white dwarfs were involved.
Just had an email a few minutes ago from Dave Kriege up in Wisconsin.
Despite a -40 wind chill (Fahrenheit or Celsius, take your pick, at -40 they become
both the same), he got out to observe.
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Originally Posted by DaveK
The view in my 25 was awesome and worth the effort. The supernova seemed to be almost the same mag as star HD 85533 which is 8.4 mag. Hard to believe it's really a star in M82 as it looks so bright.
Just had an email a few minutes ago from Dave Kriege up in Wisconsin.
Despite a -40 wind chill (Fahrenheit or Celsius, take your pick, at -40 they become
both the same), he got out to observe.
LOl did he loose his eyebrows on the eyepiece looking at that? it would be something to see thats for sure, maybe not a 1987a but then again its no ISON
As a far northern observer not seen yet from cloudy Holland
I hope clouds break before February as then I go to South Africa where it remains below the horizon..... Should be visible in my 10cm and with luck in 8cm ...
Naaaaaaah, sn1987a doesn't come close to being topped .
Us southerners can claim that until someone is lucky enough to see another naked eye supernova in their lifetime . You've got to feel sorry for them though- I thought comet ISON would've been a good payback but it went poof!
SN1987a is my weakness- I collect, read, anything I can of it. Fond memories!
Our Tom Harradine took a pic of sn1987a- awesome naked eye display isn't it?! With his permission, I got a huge print done of this.
Meanwhile back on topic...
There's a delightfully interesting story involving the discovery of this supernova. Thanks to fellow IIS'er Carl Gruber for posting in the Comet Watch group I admin on fb.
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The discovery was a fluke – a 10 minute telescope workshop for undergraduate students that led to a global scramble to acquire confirming images and spectra of a supernova in one of the most unusual and interesting of our near-neighbour galaxies.
Read more here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps-faculty/ma...ation/maps1405
Make sure you have the "historic supernovae" plugin loaded at startup and follow the instructions in the text file.
Barry, is there any documentation of the format of the textures.json file?
Can the m82.png and textures.json be put in nebula\default, and supernovae.json in modules\Supernovae, both in the user's roaming profile or do they have to go in the Stellarium install directory. Win7 write protects the install dir against everyone except Administrator.
Barry, is there any documentation of the format of the textures.json file?
None that I know of. It is quite straight forward ASCII . An entry looks like this:-
"2013aa":
{
"type": "Ia",
"maxMagnitude": 11.9,
"peakJD": 2456337,
"alpha": "14h32m33.88s",
"delta": "-44d13m27.8s"
},
I just copied an entry and changed the parameters
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Can the m82.png and textures.json be put in nebula\default, and supernovae.json in modules\Supernovae, both in the user's roaming profile or do they have to go in the Stellarium install directory. Win7 write protects the install dir against everyone except Administrator.
It is best to put them in the user area because Stellarium will look there first and if there is an entry it will use that one and ignore any others. However if there is no entry in the user area the changes can be made in the respective Stellarium program folders.
I long since removed all the win 7/8 protection by running a patch "take ownership" on the registry and gave myself full access to all protected file areas that I needed to edit.
Naaaaaaah, sn1987a doesn't come close to being topped .
Us southerners can claim that until someone is lucky enough to see another naked eye supernova in their lifetime . You've got to feel sorry for them though- I thought comet ISON would've been a good payback but it went poof!
SN1987a is my weakness- I collect, read, anything I can of it. Fond memories!
Maybe Betelgeuse in the next 1000 years ? Will be visible worldwide except Amundsen Scott base as its decl is only -7 deg S and its magnitude will be nearly as the Full Moon.
Even when it happens in June there will be a reddish star visible with the NE in full daylight just 15 deg south of the Sun !
See the attachment what the landscape looks like on Cerro Armazones, Chile (E-ELT).
.
. You've got to feel sorry for them though- I thought comet ISON would've been a good payback but it went poof! 
