![]() Hubble was able to spot circumstellar material around the star shortly after the explosion. Together, the observations provided a complete overview of the first moments of the star’s death and what followed. Pioneering observations before a star’s deathįollowing the breaking discovery, astronomers rapidly aimed Hubble, as well as ground-based telescopes, at the supernova. Scientists mainly use TESS to search for planets outside of our solar system, but the satellite also stares at the stars and has made other discoveries beyond finding exoplanets. The celestial event was also under observation by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. The supernova was discovered in April 2020 by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology in San Diego. While the star’s death occurred millions of years ago, the light from the supernova is just now reaching Earth.Īstronomers watched a star explode in a supernova inside the interacting Butterfly Galaxies, 60 million light-years away, using the Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories. ![]() The supernova, called SN 2020fqv, is located in the interacting Butterfly Galaxies, which can be found in the Virgo constellation. “We used to talk about supernova work like we were crime scene investigators, where we would show up after the fact and try to figure out what happened to that star,” said Ryan Foley, leader of the discovery team and assistant professor in the University of California, Santa Cruz, astronomy and astrophysics department, in a statement.”This is a different situation, because we really know what’s going on and we actually see the death in real time.” These observations not only provided groundbreaking insight into what happens before a star dies, but could also help astronomers develop an early warning system for stars that are about to meet their end. ![]() They witnessed the event thanks to telescopes on the ground and in space, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers had an unprecedented front-row seat to the explosive death of a star 60 million light-years away. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |