Insight Into: Supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy, 2011

 

 

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach.

 

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA, ESA, and STScI except:

 

·       Night sky imagery created with Stellarium

·       Images of supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy (SN 2011fe) courtesy of Peter Nugent and the Palomar Transient Factory, Thunderf00t (Wikipedia), and BJ Fulton/LCOGT

·       Type Ia supernova animation courtesy of ESO/M. Kornmesser

·       Taurus constellation drawing from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius, courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory

·       Black-and-white Crab Nebula image: Bill Schoening/NOAO/AURA/NSF

·       Drawing of the Crab Nebula by William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse

 

 

Written by Vanessa Thomas

Designed by John Godfrey

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Stars in a dark sky.

 

Text, The Big Dipper

 

On August 22nd, 2011, the Pinwheel Galaxy looked like the familiar swirl of stars astronomers knew so well.

 

But the next day, it was different.

 

A bright spot had appeared in the outskirts of the galaxy.

 

It was a Supernova - a stellar explosion bursting with the light of 2.5 billion Suns.

 

It was the "youngest" supernova of its kind ever seen.

 

From our vantage point, the supernova was just hours old when are telescopes first spotted it

 

Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and other telescopes around the world revealed what caused the explosion in the Pinwheel Galaxy.

 

The supernova probably occurred when two white dwarfs - cinders of dead sun-like stars - merged into one and then became explosively unstable.

 

The supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy was the closest of this type of supernova witnessed in nearly 40 years.