Supernova 2011b Gradually Fading 122
An anonymous reader writes "The recent stellar explosion known as 'supernova 2011b' is gradually fading after outshining its host galaxy for over a month. The explosion first flared up in early January, and peaked at magnitude 12.9, putting it within the reach of many amateur telescopes. The host galaxy, NGC 2655, lies 64 million light years away, meaning that the star exploded while the dinosaurs still roamed the planet. My own sketches are available at gkastro.tk/."
Have we ever gotten something better? (Score:2, Interesting)
Have we ever gotten something better than a few light plates worth of data from an in-progress supernova? I.e. an optical (false color or similar) shot of the thing going off?
It would be fantastic if we could see the shockwave of matter grow and distort. The scale of the explosion should be easily identified but I suppose things may be too hot to image optically with known techniques?
Wow Many amateur telescopes (Score:4, Interesting)
Translation, it is photographically within the reach of telescopes costing only a couple of thousand dollars, and from a good dark sky location visually within the reach of telescopes costing about as much as a typical reasonably nice used car (that is as a very dim pinpoint). The number of amateur telescopes in the world that can provide a decent view of this object is probably fewer than the number of people that will end up posting in this message thread.
Re:Dinosaurs? (Score:2, Interesting)
My thumb is the size of that car, from my frame of reference. The only way to compare them is to move both of them to the same frame of reference.
Problem is, as I walk towards that car to compare my thumb with it, the car moves away faster than I can walk, so my thumb is getting bigger and bigger all the time.
Sometimes we need an abstract frame of reference. It's no use saying "nothing moves faster than a photon" so we need to be limited to the speed photons can move. What we need to do is move both events to an abstract reference, possibly one in which both events are at rest with its own background microwave radiation, that is they are at rest with the "distant stars".
Then you can say the supernova exploded 64 million years ago.