A super-nova in galaxy M51 At the end of June of 2005 one of the closest to us supernovas was discovered in the bright galaxy M51, close to us. Pictures of this beautiful spiral galaxy, obtained before and after the discovery are shown here. The supernova is seen at the image to the right – will you be able to fin it? The supernova was discovered by Wolfgang Kloer and was designated 2005 cs. Its shine is still close to maximum, and it is possible to see it via telescope in constellation of Canes Venatici. It turned out that the supernova belongs to type II, however, changes in its shine were unusual, and that is why supposition arose that it might look like the brightest supernova in the last century designated1987A. It was discovered at the earlier obtained pictures that a bright blue star exploded as a supernova (however, the latest studies revealed that the exploded star was most likely a red supergiant – translators notes). Although every year several hundreds of supernovas is being discovered by automatic search programs, close supernovas remain rare and very important objects, as they are usually rather bright to be seen by many telescopes and are so close that on the archived images their environment is resolved to stars and one can find a star, which exploded. It is possible that after the explosion of supernova 2005 cs a star nucleus remained, which shrank and turned into a neutron star or a black hole. By the way, you are already able to look at stereo images by means of X cross method, you will be able to see volumetric image of a galaxy. Authors: R. Jay Gabani. |