Hubble space telescope explores aftermath of 30m-year-old cosmic explosion
14 years after supernova explosion, Hubble has looked at the remains of this violent cosmic event
April 05, 2023
Taking a moment of ‘change of the sight’, the Hubble Space Telescope recently captured a breathtaking cosmic activity in a far-off galaxy, titillating the stargazers’ curiosity, as it tried to map the aftermath of a massive supernova explosion, Space.com reported.
This time the legendary lens in space secured the side view of the "amorphous" UGC 2890 galaxy, which is 30 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis also known as The Giraffe.
UGC 2890 has striking similarities to Milky Way, the galaxy that houses the solar system. It is spiral in shape with a central bulge and a rotating star-studded disk, the website reported.
Astronomers in 2009 recorded a "spectacularly energetic explosion" in the galaxy, triggered after one of its stars —11 to 15 times more massive than the sun exploded as a supernova. That explosion has actually occurred 30 million years ago.
Astronomers used several European telescopes in Finland, Italy, Spain and Slovakia to study the supernova from March 30, 2009 — the very next day after its discovery — up until November of that year.
According to Space.com, at the time, they recorded the magnitude of the supernova to be -17.37, which was one of the brightest so far.
For reference, the International Space Station is relatively bright at -6 magnitude, and the sun is extremely bright at -27 magnitude.
Fourteen years after the supernova explosion, Hubble has looked at the remains of this violent cosmic event.
"While the supernova itself has long since faded from view, Hubble recently took a break from its regular observing schedule to inspect the aftermath of this explosive event," Nasa representatives wrote in an image description published on Monday (April 3).
To snap this image, Hubble used its powerful Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The ACS instrument is able to see deep sky objects in a wide range of wavelengths from ultraviolet all the way to near-infrared, and shows the UGC 2890 galaxy to be blue with "threads of dark red dust" sprinkled throughout, according to Nasa, Space.com reported.
