wana see my supernova?

[Bruce Williams]

Congratulations nytecam!

I'm curious as to how you knew the SN was extragalactic at 200MLY distant? I'm guessing extragalactic because there was no known star at that precise position but how did you calculate 200MLY - was the magnitude a factor?

Is it possible for astronomers to calculate the age of the SN - ie, the date it would first have been visible from Earth?

Bruce

[nytecam]

Originally Posted by Bruce Williams

I'm curious as to how you knew the SN was extragalactic at 200MLY distant? I'm guessing extragalactic because there was no known star at that precise position but how did you calculate 200MLY - was the magnitude a factor?

Is it possible for astronomers to calculate the age of the SN - ie, the date it would first have been visible from Earth? Bruce

Hi Bruce - good question. The object I discovered could have been anything from a nearby asteroid within the solar system, a variable star within our Milky Way galaxy or a supernova in a remote galaxy - I was able to determine it was not an asteroid [it don't move against the star background] and probably not a new galactic variable star [because of very blue in my colour images]. A supernova within our galaxy would be visible to the naked eye!

The clue is in the vital IIoA spectrum obtained from Bangalore which indicated many things.
1] a supernova a few day after the explosion -type IIP
2] velocity of the material ejected during the explosion @ 12,000Km/s
3] the redshift of the supernova's light + parent galaxy eg z=0,014=180MLY distance.

Most astronomers accept our universe began from a singular point in space in a BIG-BANG 13.6BY ago and has expanded and evolved ever since to the universe we see today - the supernova's redshift directly shows that expansion and is used as a marker of its 180MLY distance [revised].

Light from the supernova took 180MY to reach earth and I luckily 'caught' it first within hours on March 18th. Back home in the parent galaxy IC 3862 the event is no more. Full explanation on my webpage sn2011az - my supernova discovery

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for the interesting explanation nytecam.

Isn't it incredible to think that with your SN we are seeing the light from a single star (albeit as a supernova) in a galaxy 180,000,000 light years distant (somehow writing 180MLY looses something emotionally ).

Your achievement inspired me to investigate (ie, Google) just how far back in time we have managed to see as at 2011: See UDFj-39546284 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (announced Jan 2011).

Bruce

[nytecam]

Thanks Bruce - great Wiki link

There's something brighter than a supernova that can be 'seen' with amateur scopes eg quasars - these are, on a cosmic scale, extremely brilliant cores of galaxies where gas, dust and stars vanish into oblivious of blackholes but before they do eject a continuous jet of light which we see if directed our way. Here's a couple at 2.4BLY and 12BLY [just after the BIGBANG] respectively taken last spring
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...clx100522x.jpg and http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea...268-qamp3x.jpg

[trondi]

BLY ??? Help! LOL
Thanks