A new bright supernova exploded in the nearby galaxy M82 on January 14 this year, at a distance of approximately 11.5 million light–years from Earth, that makes it to the nearest “normal” Type Ia supernova discovered in the past 42 years. Its small distance together with the fact that the first observations were carried out only a few hours after the explosion, makes it in itself a very important astronomical object, since it allows to study the details of many aspects of these kind of objects that are so important for cosmology.
Type Ia supernovae, used as distance indicators, lead to the the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe in 1998, an unexpected result awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011.
The nature of the accelerated expansion is attributed to a repulsive force, called dark energy.
- You might want to see our video about Dark Energy Problem -
However, though they are readily used in cosmology, the explosion mechanism behind Type Ia supernovae is still unclear, mainly due to the difficulty of catching the explosion at early stages and the ability to study these explosions over a wide range of wavelengths.
Ariel Goobar and Rahman Amanullah from the Oskar Klein Centre realized the importance of this object and applied for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) director’s discretionary time to observe the supernova in ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, which are otherwise absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere and not observable from ground based telescopes. Thanks to these measurements one can study the immediate surroundings of the supernova, an important part of the puzzle in understanding the progenitor system. Furthermore, the UV observations
are critical to study what it is that absorbs some of the light in the line of sight in the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. This study will have implications for the precision that can be obtained on the measurements of
the properties of dark energy.
The Hubble Space Telescope news center published today the composite image of this supernova explosion, SN2014J, in the galaxy M82.
A detailed paper about SN2014J has been written by Ariel Goobar and collaborators and accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, and we will soon blog again about this exceptional supernova.
Contact: Ariel Goobar ariel.goobar@fysik.su.se
Links:
Hubble Heritage Realease