Celestia Forums

a supernova has been discovered in Pinwheel galaxy, the distance of supernova is 21 million light years, and it is the closest supernova on 21 years(discovered 24th of august 2011)

Astronomers have spotted the closest supernova in a generation — and in a week or so, stargazers with a good pair of binoculars might be able to see it, too.

The supernova, or exploded star, flared up Tuesday night (Aug. 23) in the Pinwheel Galaxy, just 21 million light-years from Earth. It's the closest star explosion of its type observed since 1986, and astronomers around the world are already scrambling to train their instruments on it.

Researchers said they think they caught the supernova, named PTF 11kly, within hours of its explosion.

"PTF 11kly is getting brighter by the minute. It’s already 20 times brighter than it was yesterday," Peter Nugent, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement yesterday (Aug. 25).

"Observing PTF 11kly unfold should be a wild ride," added Nugent, who was the first person to spot the supernova. "It is an instant cosmic classic."

read more here:
http://www.space.com/12745-closest-supe ... osion.html

I just went out to look for it, but couldn't find it.

The galaxy is too dim too, to be seen even with my dad's telescope, but I'll keep my eye out in the next few weeks.







Next stop, Betelgeuse.

do you think it can effect the nightsky on Earth, that it can be much lighter nights?

kristoffer wrote:do you think it can effect the nightsky on Earth, that it can be much lighter nights?

It's much too far away to do that. For a supernova to be noticeable without a telescope, it would have to be in our own galaxy and within a few tens of thousands of light years.