APOD: SN 2006GY: Brightest Supernova (2007 May 10)

brbear1 · Post by **brbear1** » Thu May 10, 2007 4:48 pm

In the caption, the estimated distance to SN 2006GY is 240 million light years. Is this approaching the limit in the universe that our various telescopes and observatories can reasonably study celestial objects?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070510.html

astro_uk · Post by **astro_uk** » Thu May 10, 2007 6:33 pm

That all depends on what you mean by reasonably.

I have colleagues that study objects several Billion light years away. Obviously though it becomes more difficult to really understand what is going on the furher away you look. However its surprising just how much you can learn from faint smudges located several Billion light years away.

The colours and spectra of objects can still tell you an awful lot about an object even when it becomes impossible to resolve individual components.

Plus there is always mother natures trick of providing things like gravitational lenses, these make objects appear much larger and easier to study.

brbear1 · Post by **brbear1** » Thu May 10, 2007 7:22 pm

A follow-up question on SN 2006GY. Since the estimated distance to SN 2006GY is 240 million light years, does that mean this event actually occurred 240 million years ago and we are just now seeing it, or that the supernova actually occurred more recently and our modern telescope's ability to"reach-out" farther into space provides us the opportunity to see it sooner? (I hope that makes sense.)

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:10 pm

It actually happened 240 million years ago. There is, unfortunately, no way known or postulated to "reach out" and see events ahead of their occurrence. However, in our frame of reference, it effectively is occurring now, because we have no way of observing it any sooner.

--

I couldn't believe the labels on that image, so I went looking for a little more info.

The big picture on the left is an infrared image of the galaxy. In this view, it's just one big blob.

The upper right, however, is a more detailed infrared shot from the Lick observatory, and this is what amazed me. The supernova is brighter in infrared than it's host galaxy!

According to the listed arc-length of NGC 1260 and its distance, the galaxy is similar in size to the Milky Way (75000 LY across).

Lastly, if you look at the third picture and click on the link to Eta Carinae, you can guess why SN 2006GY appears as two purple blobs in X-ray.

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Thu May 10, 2007 11:56 pm

I was under the impression that the two Purple Blob X-RAY sources were the SN and the host galactic center.

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Sun May 13, 2007 4:15 am

I may have misinterpreted the picture, but I'm pretty sure I read in another article (I think on space.com) that the X-ray afterglow showed a lobed structure like Eta Carinae. Looking again at the picture, I'm more inclined to believe your suggestion, in which case the symmetry in that wavelength is as interesting as the lobed structure I originally interpreted.