Check out that new supernova called SN2023IXF in the outer spiral arm of the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101)! Here’s a before ( March 8, 2023) and after picture (May 23, 2023) I took of the pinwheel Galaxy (M101). The supernova explosion actually happened 21 million years ago. It took light this long to “travel” to our Milkyway. Is it that special? Well, yes and no. In our Milky Way galaxy, we can only observe about 2 to 3 supernovae each century. But we have about 2 billion galaxies in the observable universe, so we can observe hundreds of supernovae every year. M101 is a great galaxy located in the big dipper (Ursa Major) to observe and photograph for amateur astronomers with telescopes from their backyards like me – so we will be seeing lots of pictures in the upcoming months as this supernova is going to be visible for the next few months.
A supernova is the biggest explosion that humans have ever seen. Each blast is the extremely bright, super-powerful explosion of a star. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it cools off. This causes the pressure to drop. Gravity wins out, and the star suddenly collapses. Imagine something one million times the mass of Earth collapsing in 15 seconds! The collapse happens so quickly that it creates enormous shock waves that cause the outer part of the star to explode! Usually, a very dense core is left behind, along with an expanding cloud of hot gas called a nebula (source: NASA).
If you want to see what such an expanding cloud of hot gas looks like, check out the Veil Nebula -also called the Cygnus loop – in the constellation Cygnus, about 2400 lightyears away, within our own Milky Way galaxy. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. At the time of the explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in the daytime. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter of the full Moon – source wikipedia).
About the SN2023IXF Supernova picture:
I took 30×5 minute pictures of the supernova in narrowband (Ha) and added it as an overlay to my first picture. I used my Edge HD 8″ with my ASI1600MM Pro camera to photograph the supernova.
About the veil nebula pictures:
I photographed the veil nebula using my TS 80/480mm Photoline F/6 telescope with my ASI1600MM Pro camera. The veil nebula pictures are narrowband pictures, where I took about 50×300 second photos using a 7nm hydrogen alpha and a 7nm oiii (oxygen) narrowband filter, to produce an overall stacked HOO picture.
You can find out more about the astrophotography gear I use here!
Clear skies!