Discovery of Most Recent Supernova in our Galaxy

Source: Harvard University

Scientists have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and NRAO's Very Large Array to discover the most recent supernova explosion in our Galaxy, as measured in Earth's time frame.

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A video file about the discovery will air on NASA Television on May 14 at noon and 1pm (check the NASA TV schedule for additional times). NASA TV is carried on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. NASA TV is available in Alaska and Hawaii on AMC-7 at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization.


Read more: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/g19/media/

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Live blog here: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/liveblog-nasa-a.html

10:03: NASA press release goes live, spoiling the fun. Scientists using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered the Milky Way's most recent supernova, which exploded a mere 140 years ago, a few years after the Civil War.

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10:16: Reynolds continuing: Supernova located approximately 26,000 light years away from here. Shockwave moving 5% of the speed of light, the fastest ever observed. This supernova exhibits special kind of x-ray activity, one of only 4 supernovae with these x-rays, which are incredibly high-energy, far beyond anything that even the Large Hadron Collider will create.

All news Astronomical.

Thanks!

Even at the galactic center, I'd expect it was pretty bright.

The original supernova explosion was not seen in optical light about 140 years ago because it occurred close to the center of the Galaxy, and is embedded in a dense field of gas and dust. This made the supernova about a trillion times fainter, in optical light, than if it had been unobscured. However, X-rays and radio waves from the resulting supernova remnant easily penetrate this dust and gas.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/photos08-062.html

"And republicon homelander occultists might mark this Supernova as well as they mark the Moon. Smirk."

- Kryptically yours,
Ronald Reagan's Dead Republicon Astrologer*



* Courageously channeled from the occult republicon netherworld by Ye Olde Spirale Hawke

The supernova was 26,000 light years away from us. That means that light from that star would take 26,000 years to get here. Yet the explosion took place only 140 years ago. How did NASA see it? I must be missing something.

Can anyone help? (I love this stuff, and really want to understand it ...)

Bake

Presumably it happened 26,000 (+ 140) years ago and the light (had it not been obscured) from the explosion reached the earth about the time of the Civil War... The key issue is the blast wave which (since it was only moving at 5% the speed of light) might be still visibly propagating...

Unless the explosion was less than 140 LY away we couldn't possibly know about such an event (for all we know there could be a devastating radiation wave from a nearby supernova hurtling our way right now but we wouldn't know until we saw it!)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2311-supernova-poised-to-go-off-near-earth.html

The gamma radiation could severely damage the Earth's ozone layer for one thing..

Supernovae are almost unimaginably energetic, they will outshine the entire galaxy in which they occur sometimes.

The first light of this event reached Earth 140 years ago, but the event occurred 26,000 years ago. The first light wasn't visible ... our modern instruments, which can see above and below our vision, have made it visible to us.