Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a beautiful new image of the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 941.
NGC 941 is located about 55 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Cetus.
Otherwise known as IRAS 02259-0122, LEDA 9414 or UGC 1954, the galaxy is approximately 55,000 light-years across.
NGC 941 was discovered by the German-British astronomer William Herschel on January 6, 1785.
“The beautiful NGC 941 is undoubtedly the main attraction in this image,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“However, this hazy-looking galaxy was not the motivation for the data being collected.”
“That distinction belongs to an astronomical event that took place in the galaxy years before: the supernova SN 2005ad.”
“The location of this faded supernova was observed as part of a study of multiple hydrogen-rich supernovae, also known as type II supernovae, in order to better understand the environments in which certain types of supernovae take place.”
Whilst the study was conducted by professional astronomers, SN 2005ad itself owes its discovery to a distinguished amateur astronomer named Kōichi Itagaki, who has discovered over 170 supernovae.
“This might raise the question of how an amateur astronomer could spot something like a supernova event before professional astronomers — who have access to telescopes such as Hubble,” the astronomers said.
“The answer is in part that the detection of supernovae is a mixture of skill, facilities and luck.”
“Most astronomical events happen over time spans that dwarf human lifetimes, but supernova explosions are extraordinarily fast, appearing very suddenly and then brightening and dimming over a period of days or weeks.”
“Another aspect is that professional astronomers often do not spend that much time actually observing.”
“There is a great deal of competition for time on telescopes such as Hubble, and then data from a few hours of observations might take weeks,…
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