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

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

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

While hundreds of supernovae are seen yearly, the proximity of 2023ixf means it may be studied in rather more element than others. Telescopes internationally have been educated in its course “within hours of its discovery”, says Azalee Bostroem on the University of Arizona, deducing it was in all probability a kind II supernova, in which a supergiant star runs out of gasoline and collapses in on itself earlier than exploding.

Bostroem has been allotted time on the Hubble Space Telescope to research the ultraviolet mild from the explosion. So far, it appears to be like 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 one of the most interesting questions,” says Bostroem.

Two or three stars have been recognized because the potential progenitor of the supernova, together with a kind of large star generally known as a Wolf-Rayet star, however the supernova is presently too vibrant 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. “This is going to be like a Rosetta Stone supernova,” says Bostroem. “It’s going to be one of those ones that we compare everything to.”