Astronomers Take a Photograph of the Youngest Supernova Right After Its Explosion

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2011) — Astronomers have obtained a never-before achieved radio astronomical photograph of the youngest supernova. Fourteen days after the explosion of a star in the galaxy Galàxia del Remolí (M51) last June, coordinated telescopes around Europe have taken a photograph of the cosmic explosion in great detail -- equivalent to seeing a golf ball on the surface of the moon.

The University of Valencia and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia took part in this research. The results will be published this week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The telescopes participating in the research were NASA's telescopes at Robledo de Chavela (Madrid) and those of the National Geographic Institute in Yebes (Guadalajara).

Barely at 23 million light years from Earth, in the constellation of Llebrers, Galàxia El Remolí can be the scene of one of the most violent phenomena in the universe, despite its beautiful appearance: the death of a star in the shape of a supernova explosion. Several combined telescopes spread over Spain, Sweden, Germay and Finland, and the data processing by means of a supercomputer in The Netherlands, enable to have the capacity of a telescope measuring thousands of kilometres. Thus, a really clear image has been obtained, with a detail a hundred times greater than that of the space telescope Hubble. This technique, known as radio interferometry, has allowed Iván Martí and his team to take a photograph of the supernovova SN2011dh just some days after its explosion.

This experiment is beating a record: 'this is the earliest high resolution image of a supernova explosion. From this photograph, we can define the expansion velocity of the shock wave created in the explosion', states Iván Martí from the Institut Max Planck of Radio Astronomy in Bonn (Germany). The full professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of Valencia, Jon Marcaid, argues that 'with this precision, we can look for the previous star on the earlier galaxy photographs, as well as weigh up better our future observations.'

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111124150353.htm

[JohnnyRingo]

1. It's incredible someone just happened to be studying this sector when it happened.

Considering there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth, the odds are slim that any particular cosmic event will be noticed. This is the first I'd heard of radio interferometry. It sure makes for a dramatic image.

Thanx for posting, I eat this stuff up with a spoon.

[Deep13]

3. They may have been tipped off by an amateur.

Every night, somewhere in the world, hundreds of amateurs are searching the sky for evidence of new supernovae, asteroids, and comets.

[The Doctor.]

4. Well, probably not. It did happens 23 million years ago or so.

But yeah, it is cool that we were looking when the light got here.

[dtexdem]

2. Smile and say "kaboom."

A stellar success for radio interferonomers.

[Newest Reality]

5. Wait a minute

At that distance from us, wouldn't that be an extremely ancient event? We are now recording the light that is reaching us long after the supernova occurred.

Oh, that's relative.