Astronomy Down Under

Supernova caught in the act

31 Aug at 14:04 by Wilson

Astronomers reported in Nature that a supernova was caught on camera as it happened for the first time. This was possible because the blast was preceded by a somewhat long gamma ray burst that acted as an “early warning system” of sorts.

Supernova 2006aj (in the constellation Aries) also gives us the first confirmation that supernova blasts do have early signals that can be detected so that the explosion can be predicted and its progress followed; previously, supernovas were only detected visually, and that only became possible several days after the explosion happened.