Posted on 01/22/2014 8:03:47 AM PST by BenLurkin
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!
...
M81 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Must have sucked to been them, 12 million years ago.
Can we see with binocs, or would it have to be on a tripod?
ping
The irony of the reporting is cool, actually.
The supernova is new, to us. It happened 12 million years ago, if indeed, it is located 12 million light years away.
Amazing.
Links listed report SN at visual mag 11.7.
Only? Road trip!
it’s only 12 million light years from Earth
Only? Road trip!
Egotistical Star is SUPER nova.
Ya hear that, Monica?
The "Cigar Galaxy"! LOL.
Just in time for the arrival of my Dunhills.
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
I hope it didn’t affect the Fuente quadrant.
Road trip - I’ll pick up beer & boiled peanuts
And for those who aren't aware, ONE light year, the *distance* light travels in a year at its speed of 186,000 miles per second, works out to just under 6 TRILLION miles. Now multiply 6 trillion by 12 million.
Beans!! We must have beans!!!!!
Now known as the Exploding Cigar Galaxy.
Oddly enough, the closest galaxy to the Milky Way is in the Milky Way. It is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, which the Milky Way has “eaten”, so some of its stars have already become Milky Way stars. As a galaxy, it is actually closer to Earth than the galactic center, at only 25,000 light years. (From us, the galactic center is about 30,000 light years away.)
The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is pretty dinky, with only about a billion stars, whereas the Milky Way has from 200 to 400 billion.
May want to take a change of underwear too. If my math is correct, M82 is over 70 quintillion miles away. The fastest thing we’ve ever made travels at 25 miles per second. That works out to about 788 million miles in a year. So that’s 89,280,000 years to M82 at our best speed.
Maybe we should start with Proxima Centauri, our closest star. It’s only 31,568 years away.
I shot some video of it last night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48xJBO9Fbr0
Very cool!
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