APOD: A Supernova through Galaxy Dust (2016 Feb 23)

[APOD Robot]

A Supernova through Galaxy Dust

Explanation: Telescopes around the world are tracking a bright supernova that occurred in a nearby dusty galaxy. The powerful stellar explosion was first noted earlier this month. The nearby galaxy is the photogenic Centaurus A, visible with binoculars and known for impressive filaments of light-absorbing dust that cross its center. Cen A is featured here in a high-resolution archival Hubble Space Telescope image, with an inset image featuring the supernova taken from the ground only two days after discovery. Designated SN2016adj, the supernova is highlighted with crosshairs in the inset, appearing just to the left of a bright foreground star in our Milky Way Galaxy. This supernova is currently thought to be of Type IIb, a stellar-core-collapse supernova, and is of high interest because it occurred so nearby and because it is being seen through a known dust filament. Current and future observations of this supernova may give us new clues about the fates of massive stars and how some elements found on our Earth were formed.

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[Ann]

This is really fascinating. Thanks!

Ann

[RedFishBlueFish]

Difficult for this non-astronomer to tell which part of the reference image is being magnified in the inset.

[geckzilla]

Difficult for this non-astronomer to tell which part of the reference image is being magnified in the inset.

The inset is actually being magnified by the big image, which the supernova itself is not visible in.

[neufer]

Difficult for this non-astronomer to tell which part of the reference image is being magnified in the inset.

The inset is actually being magnified by the big image, which the supernova itself is not visible in.

OTOH, the inset shows the supernova very near to a relatively bright star in the big image (both being defined by a position "next" to a local Milky Way star). Did that "Betelgeuse" star explode?

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<<The illustration [on the left] shows the anticipated [500 Mly core collapse supernova] "reach" of Advanced LIGO (the purple sphere) compared to Initial LIGO (the orange sphere). Each small dot in the figure represents a galaxy. Since the volume of space that the instrument can see grows as the cube of the distance, this means that the event rates will be more than 1,000 times greater. Advanced LIGO will equal the 1-yr integrated observation time of Initial LIGO in roughly 3 hours.>>

(Galaxy map credit: R. Powell, http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com.)

[tomatoherd]

Pity the nova was so near the foreground star. Hope it doesn't interfere w/ any measurements.
BTW, the dog's wet nose is hardly "so nearby". It looks to be quadrillions and quadrillions of light Fermi-seconds away...

[Boomer12k]

A Supernova "peekaboo" shot.... fantastic.

:---[===] *

[geckzilla]

Difficult for this non-astronomer to tell which part of the reference image is being magnified in the inset.

The inset is actually being magnified by the big image, which the supernova itself is not visible in.

OTOH, the inset shows the supernova very near to a relatively bright star in the big image (both being defined by a position "next" to a local Milky Way star). Did that "Betelgeuse" star explode?

Possibly. A followup image could be taken and compared with the archival Hubble data to see if the progenitor has disappeared, like this one:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv ... web_print/

[Uncle Norman]

I'm confused and disappointed that there aren't any shots of this supernova taken by any of the "big guns' like Hubble, Keck, etc. Why not?

[Chris Peterson]

I'm confused and disappointed that there aren't any shots of this supernova taken by any of the "big guns' like Hubble, Keck, etc. Why not?

The big professional scopes generally produce embargoed data, giving the people whose grants are paying for use time to write papers. That said, a supernova like this is readily monitored with a much smaller scope, so there may not be a lot of data coming from big ones.

[DavidLeodis]

I'm confused as to the date when the supernova was discovered as according to information in the BOSS website it was discovered on 2016-01-21, which is not early February stated in the explanation and also not on February 8 2016 stated through a link. This is the link to the BOSS website that gives the 2016-01-21 date:- http://www.bosssupernova.com/

[geckzilla]

I'm confused as to the date when the supernova was discovered as according to information in the BOSS website it was discovered on 2016-01-21, which is not early February stated in the explanation and also not on February 8 2016 stated through a link. This is the link to the BOSS website that gives the 2016-01-21 date:- http://www.bosssupernova.com/

Check the date on the image, which gives the Feb 8 date, but the same time down to the second for the Jan 21 date presented in the text. I'd suggest emailing them to let them know there is an error. Maybe the January date was correct all along, but I doubt it.

[Chris Peterson]

I'm confused as to the date when the supernova was discovered as according to information in the BOSS website it was discovered on 2016-01-21, which is not early February stated in the explanation and also not on February 8 2016 stated through a link. This is the link to the BOSS website that gives the 2016-01-21 date:- http://www.bosssupernova.com/

8 February is correct for the discovery image. Even on the page you reference, that is the date found throughout, except in that one line at the top. The earliest prediscovery image showing the SN appears to be 31 January (or possibly 29 January). Images from earlier (including 21 January) do not show the SN.

[DavidLeodis]

Thanks geckzilla and Chris .

It does seem clear that the February 8 2016 discovery date is correct and that the 2016-01-21 stated in part of the BOSS website is an error.

[Peterm]

Hi all.
As one of the discoverers of sn2016adj thanks for pointing out our website has the wrong date of discovery noted, we will update to February 8 asap. We are also hopeful that maybe the HST will be used to image this supernova.
Regards
Peter
BOSS team

[NGC3314]

I'm confused and disappointed that there aren't any shots of this supernova taken by any of the "big guns' like Hubble, Keck, etc. Why not?

There has been a report of Keck near-infrared observations using adaptive optics to get the most accurate position they could, in hopes of using old HST imaging to find the progenitor. Centaurus A never rises as high as 30 degrees above the horizon from Mauna Kea, so it must be a bit of a scramble to get quality data.