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curiousuburb
Antimatter Man
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
 
2008-05-21, 15:16

90 Million LY... in a galaxy known for it (3 in this picture from January)... while many of the other stars in Lynx are hundreds or thousands of LY. That's bright.

Quote:
2008 January 18



Supernova Factory NGC 2770
Credit: A. de Ugarte Postigo (ESO) et al., Dark Cosmology Centre (NBI, KU),
Instituto de AstrofĂ­sica de AndalucĂ­a (CSIC), University of Hertfordshire

Explanation: The stellar explosions known as supernovae are among the most powerful events in the universe. Triggered by the collapsing core of a massive star or the nuclear demise of a white dwarf, supernovae occur in average spiral galaxies only about once every century. But the remarkable spiral galaxy NGC 2770 has lately produced more than its fair share. Two still bright supernovae and the location of a third, originally spotted in 1999 but now faded from view, are indicated in this image of the edge-on spiral. All three supernovae are now thought to be of the core-collapse variety, but the most recent of the trio, SN2008D, was first detected by the Swift satellite at more extreme energies as an X-ray flash (XRF) or possibly a low-energy version of a gamma-ray burst on January 9th. Located a mere 90 million light-years away in the northern constellation Lynx, NGC 2770 is now the closest galaxy known to host such a powerful supernova event.

Still cool. And there's a few other groovy astonomy stories in that issue it seems.

Other sites have pictures from the SWIFT team itself... if only thumbs.

Quote:

On January 9, 2008, NASA's Swift observatory caught a bright X-ray burst from an exploding star. Carnegie-Princeton fellows Alicia Soderberg and Edo Berger were on hand to witness this first-of-its-kind event. A few days later, SN 2008D appeared in visible light.
Credit: Image courtesy NASA/Swift Science Team/Stefan Immler

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.

Last edited by curiousuburb : 2008-05-21 at 15:28.
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