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Image of spiral galaxy NGC 941 taken by NASA Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows spiral galaxy NGC 941, about 55 million light-years from Earth. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) collected the data that created this image. The beautiful NGC 941 is definitely the main attraction of this view. But the hazy galaxies were not the motivation for data collection. This difference is due to an astronomical phenomenon that occurred in the galaxy many years ago: supernova SN 2005ad.
This faded supernova location was observed as part of a study of hydrogen-rich supernovae, also known as Type II supernovae, to better understand the environments in which certain types of supernovae occur. Although this research was conducted by professional astronomers, SN 2005ad itself was the discovery of Koichi Itagaki, a prominent amateur astronomer who has discovered more than 170 supernovae.
This could raise the question of how amateur astronomers can discover things like supernova events before professional astronomers who have access to telescopes such as Hubble. Detecting supernovae is a combination of skill, equipment, and luck. While most astronomical phenomena occur over long periods of time that dwarf a human lifetime, supernovae appear very quickly and very suddenly, brightening and fading over days or weeks.
Another aspect is time. Processing and analyzing data from hours of observation with a telescope like Hubble can take weeks, months, or even years. Amateur astronomers have more time to actively observe the sky, and in some cases they have a much better system of telescopes, computers, and software to use.
Amateurs like Itagaki discover so many supernovae that there is actually an online system (temporary name server) set up to report them. This system is very useful for professional astronomers, because time is really important in supernova events. After the discovery of SN 2005ab was reported, professional astronomers followed up on spectroscopic studies and were able to confirm that it was a type II supernova, ultimately leading Hubble to study its location. became. Such studies would not be possible without a rich library of cataloged supernovae built up by the keen eyes of amateur astronomers.
