Supernova SN 2023ixf: Astronomers race to observe exploding star in a nearby galaxy

A star has exploded in a galaxy simply 21 million gentle years from Earth, giving astronomers a uncommon alternative to observe a supernova unfold in actual time in beautiful element.

Supernova SN 2023ixf was found within the Pinwheel galaxy, or M101, on 19 Might by a Japanese beginner astronomer referred to as Koichi Itagaki. It’s the closest supernova to Earth since SN 2014J in 2014, which was some 11 million gentle years away. The supernova, which already outshines its host galaxy, is predicted to peak in brightness within the coming days, however could stay seen for years.

Whereas 1000’s of supernovae are seen yearly, the proximity of 2023ixf means it may be studied in way more element than others. Telescopes the world over have been educated in its route “inside hours of its discovery”, says Azalee Bostroem on the College of Arizona, deducing it was in all probability a kind II supernova, during which a supergiant star runs out of gas and collapses in on itself earlier than exploding.

Bostroem has been allotted time on the Hubble Area Telescope to review the ultraviolet gentle from the explosion. To this point, it appears just like the supernova is interacting with materials that was beforehand ejected by the star, which the Hubble observations might probe additional. “How stars lose mass is likely one of the most attention-grabbing questions,” says Bostroem.

Two or three stars have been recognized because the attainable progenitor of the supernova, together with a kind of large star often called a Wolf-Rayet star, however the supernova is presently too shiny to work out which it’s. Hubble and even the James Webb Space Telescope might inform us extra when the supernova dims.

Observations of 2023ixf could present invaluable information on our understanding of how supernovae unfold. “That is going to be like a Rosetta Stone supernova,” says Bostroem. “It’s going to be a kind of ones that we evaluate all the things to.”