Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  M 101  ·  NGC 5447  ·  NGC 5449  ·  NGC 5450  ·  NGC 5451  ·  NGC 5453  ·  NGC 5455  ·  NGC 5457  ·  NGC 5461  ·  NGC 5462  ·  NGC 5471  ·  Pinwheel galaxy
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy & SN2023IXF, Steven Joseph Hill

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy & SN2023IXF

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy & SN2023IXF, Steven Joseph Hill

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy & SN2023IXF

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Currently, all of the scientific community is talking about Supernova SN 2023ixf, and this image shows SN 2023ixf in its brilliant form outshining even the core of the M101 galaxy itself. SN 2023ixf was discovered on May 19th by Koichi Itagaki, and is currently a magnitude 11/12 object. M101 lies approximately 21 million light years from Earth and presents one of the closest supernova's in decades. This really is a truly extraordinary event, as it demonstrates the death of a star when its nuclear fusion process is depleted and succumbs to gravitational pressure, leading to a core collapse and thermonuclear explosion.

The star Betelgeuse (top left star in the winter constellation of Orion), has been predicted to go Supernova for some time due to its fluctuating nature, if lucky to see this event in our lifetimes, it could be as bright as the Moon and also be visible during daylight.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

M101 Pinwheel Galaxy & SN2023IXF, Steven Joseph Hill

In these public groups

Welsh Astro-Imaging