Bright New Supernova Blows Up in Nearby M82, the Cigar Galaxy
Before and after photos of the galaxy M82 showing the appearance of a brand new 11.7 magnitude supernova. The object is located in the galaxy’s plane 54″ west and 21″ south of its center. Credit: E. Guido, N. Howes, M. Nicolini
Wow! Now here’s a supernova bright enough for even small telescope observers to see. And it’s in a bright galaxy in Ursa Major well placed for viewing during evening hours in the northern hemisphere. Doesn’t get much better than that! The new object was discovered last night by S.J. Fossey; news of the outburst first appeared on the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams “Transient Objects Confirmation Page”
An animation showing a comparison between the confirmation image of supernova in M82 by the team from the Remanzacco Observatory and archive image by a 2-meter telescope FTN – LCOGT from November 22, 2013. Click on the image for a larger version. Credit: E. Guido, N. Howes, M. Nicolini.
Astronomers are saying this new supernova is currently at magnitude +11 to +12, so its definitely not visible with the naked eye. You’ll need a 4 inch telescope at least to be able to see it. That said, at 12 million light years away, this is (at the moment) the brightest, closest supernova since SN 1993 J kaboomed in neighboring galaxy M81 21 years ago in 1993. M81 and M82, along with NGC 3077, form a close-knit interacting group.
It’s amazing it wasn’t found and reported sooner (update — see below, as perhaps it was!). M82 is a popular target for beginning and amateur astronomers; pre-discovery observations show it had already brightened to magnitude 13.9 on the 16th, 13.3 on the 17th and 12.2 on the 19th. Cold winter weather and clouds to blame?
This is the starburst galaxy M82 imaged by Hubble in 2006, with approximate location of the new supernova noted. Image credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage team, image notation by Jason Major.
M82 is a bright, striking edge-on spiral galaxy bright enough to see in binoculars. Known as the Cigar or Starburst Galaxy because of its shape and a large, active starburst region in its core, it’s only 12 million light years from Earth and home to two previous supernovae in 2004 and 2008. Neither of those came anywhere close to the being as bright as the discovery, and it’s very possible the new object will become brighter yet.
Evolution of a Type Ia supernova. A superdense white dwarf star draws matter from a companion star, reaches a critical limit and then burns catastrophically. Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
PSN J09554214+6940260 is a Type Ia supernova. Type Ia (one-a), a dry term describing one of the most catastrophic events in the universe. Here a superdense white dwarf, a star only about the size of Earth but with the gravitational power of a sun-size star, pulls hydrogen gas from a nearby companion down to its surface where it adds to the star’s weight.
When the dwarf packs enough pounds to reach a mass 1.4 times that of the sun, it can no longer support itself. The star suddenly collapses, heats to incredible temperatures and burns up explosively in a runaway fusion reaction. What we see here on Earth is the sudden appearance of a brand new star within the galaxy’s disk. Of course, it’s not really a new star, but rather the end of an aged one.
This map shows the sky facing north-northeast at 8 p.m. local time in late January. The supernova is located about a “fist” above the Dipper Bowl in M82. Right next door is the equally bright M81 galaxy. It’s easy to tell them apart. M81 is round with a bright core; M82 looks like a streak mark. See detailed map below. Stellarium
I know you’re as excited as I am to get a look at this spectacular new star the next clear night, so I’ve prepared a couple maps to help you find the galaxy. The best time to see the supernova is as soon as the sky gets dark when it’s already up in the northeastern sky above the Dipper Bowl, but since it’s circumpolar for mid-latitude observers, you can check it out any time of night.
To find M82, look about 7 degrees (not quite a fist held at arm’s length) above the Bowl to find 23 UMa, an easy naked eye star. From there you can star hop to a little triangle and over to a pair of stars (the “line”). M82 and M81 are about half a degree below the line. Stellarium
My maps show its position for around 8 o’clock. When you dial in the galaxy in your telescope, look for a starry point along its long axis west and south of the nucleus. All the fury of this fantastic blast is concentrated in that meek spark of light glimmering in the galactic haze.
Good luck and enjoy watching one of the biggest show of fireworks the universe has to offer. We’ll keep you posted with the latest updates right here. For more photos and additional information, please see David Bishop’s excellent Latest Supernovae site. For charts with magnitudes to follow the supernova’s progress, visit the AAVSO’s Variable Star Plotter and type in ‘PSN J09554214+6940260′ for the star’s name. You can read more about the followup work by the Remanzacco Observa...
UPDATE: Sketch of M82 and its supernova, now designated SN 2014J, made at 9 p.m. CST Jan. 22 with a 15-inch (37 cm) telescope. A perfect arc of 3 stars (left) takes you right to it. The object is the only bright star shining in the galaxy. Amazingly easy to see. Numbers shown are magnitudes from the AAVSO – use them to help you gauge 2014J’s brightness changes. Credit: Bob King
UPDATE: Fraser and team from the Virtual Star Party actually imaged M82 on Sunday evening, and you can see it in the video below at the 22 minute mark. It really looks like a bright spot is showing up — and that’s about a day before it was announced. Did they catch it? In the video the galaxy appears upside down as compared to the images here:
A “Standard Candle” of the Universe
September 8, 2009 by Brian Ventrudo
Over the spring and summer, we finished our series on the lives of stars by describing the most violent event in the universe: a massive dying star exploding as a Type II supernovae.
But there is another type of supernova with a completely different physical cause. This is the Type Ia supernovae, which also turns out to be indispensable to astronomers for measuring the size of the universe.
Like their Type II counterparts, Type Ia supernovae show up in our galaxy and in others. Like Type II, they are immensely bright… about 5 billion times as bright as the Sun. Many Type Ia supernovae are discovered each year, some by amateur astronomers.
Type II supernova occur in a single massive star that’s collapsed after running out of fuel in its core. But Type Ia supernovae occur in a double or multiple-star system. One star in the system is a white dwarf, which pulls gas from its companion main sequence or red giant star onto its surface. When the white dwarf collects enough new mass to approach the Chandresekhar limit of 1.4 solar masses (see White Dwarfs) the star collapses and explodes as a supernova. Ka-boom!
- See more at: http://oneminuteastronomer.com/1016/standard-candles-universe/#stha...
A supernova is a stellar explosion – destructive on a scale almost beyond human imagining. If our sun exploded as a supernova, the resulting shock wave probably wouldn’t destroy the Earth, but it would remove all life from Earth’s surface. Also, the sudden decrease in the sun’s mass would probably free the Earth to wander off into space. What is the closest safe distance? Scientific literature cites 50 to 100 years as the closest safe distance between Earth and a supernova.
An explosion of a nearby star would leave Earth and its surface life relatively intact. But the explosion would shower us with gamma rays and other high energy radiation. This radiation could cause mutations in earthly life. Also, the radiation from a nearby supernova could change our climate.
No supernova has been known to erupt at this close distance in the known history of humankind.
Our sun isn’t the sort of star destined to explode in this way. But other stars, beyond our solar system, will suffer this fate.
Image of remnant of Supernova 1987A as seen at optical wavelengths with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011. This supernova was the closest in centuries, and it was visible to the eye alone. It was located on the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. It was located approximately 168,000 light-years from Earth. Via NASA, ESA, and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics).
How many potential supernovae are located closer to us than 50 to 100 light-years? The answer depends on the kind of supernova. A Type II supernova is an aging massive star that collapses. There are no stars massive enough to do this located within 50 light-years of Earth. But there are also Type I supernovae – caused by the collapse of a small faint white dwarf star. These stars are dim and hard to find, so we can’t be sure just how many are around. There are probably a few hundred of these stars within 50 light-years.
What is the closest supernova candidate? The star IK Pegasi B is the nearest known supernova progenitor candidate. It’s part of a binary star system, located about 150 light years from our sun and solar system. IK Pegasi B is a massive white dwarf — a star that has evolved past the main sequence stage of stellar evolution and is no longer generating energy via thermonuclear fusion reactions at its core. The other star (considered the primary star in the system and therefore called IK Pegasi A) is an ordinary main sequence star, not unlike our sun. When the A star begins to evolve into a red giant, it is expected to grow to a radius where the white dwarf can accrete, or take on, matter from A’s expanded gaseous envelope. When the B star gets massive enough, it might collapse on itself, in the process exploding as a supernova.
No one knows how often supernovae erupt in our galaxy. Scientists have speculated that the high-energy radiation from supernovae has already caused mutations in earthly species, maybe even human beings. There may be one dangerous supernova event in Earth’s vicinity every 15 million years.
Contrast that to a few million years for the time humans are thought to have existed on the planet – and four-and-a-half billion years for the age of Earth itself. So a supernova is certain to occur near Earth – but probably not in the foreseeable future of humanity.
Bottom line: Scientific literature cites 50 to 100 years as the closest safe distance between Earth and a supernova.
http://earthsky.org/space/supernove-distance?utm_source=EarthSky+Ne...
