A Nearby Supernova in Spiral Galaxy M100
影像提供: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO
Explanation:
One of the nearer supernovas of recent years was discovered last month in the bright nearby galaxy M100. The supernova, dubbed SN 2006X, is still near its maximum brightness and visible with a telescope toward the constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices) The supernova, pictured above, has been identified as Type Ia indicating that a white dwarf star in the picturesque spiral galaxy has gone near its Chandrasekhar limit and exploded. Although hundreds of supernovas are now discovered each year by automated searches, nearby supernova are rare and important because they frequently become bright enough to be studied by many telescopes and are near enough for their immediate surroundings to be spatially resolved. Supernova 2006X's host galaxy M100 resides in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies located about 50 million light years from Earth.
說明:
近年來較鄰近的超新星之一，上個月出現在明亮的鄰近星系M100內。這個名為SN 2006X的超新星，亮度還在最大亮度附近，可以用望遠鏡在后髮座內找到它。上面影像中這顆超新星的分類是Ia型，也就是這個美麗星系內有顆白矮星的質量，超過了錢卓拉極限並發生爆炸。在每一年之中，自動化搜尋計畫都會找到數百顆超新星，不過鄰近的超新星很少見而且很重要，因為它們通常夠明亮，讓很多望遠鏡能夠研究它們。而已也因為夠近，它們周遭的環境可以被解析出來，超新星2006X的寄主星系是室女座星系團的成員，距離地球約有五千萬光年遠。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
