Amateur Japanese astronomer finds a supernova very close to Earth

The universe is infinite and one of the phenomena that has caused the most curiosity among astronomers is that of the supernova. Those stellar explosions that could even be observable with the naked eye due to their magnitude but that are tremendously difficult to track.

We have a perfect example of this with the story that we shared with you last November 2022 where the technology of the Hubble telescope and an elaborate process of analysis made it possible to detect this phenomenon that at its climatic point managed to run at a speed of 10,000. kilometers per second.

For this reason, the most recent discovery by the Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who was able not only to detect a supernova, but also to find it very close to Earth, is now curious and striking.

This story is somewhat of an unexpected anomaly, and so it’s worth going over the general details of how it all happened.

The story of the amateur who found a supernova

Roughly. A Japanese amateur astronomer discovered a new supernova very close to Earth in the Galaxy M101also known as the pinwheel galaxy, or Pinwheel galaxy.

The supernova, called SN2023ixf, is the closest of its kind discovered in the last five years and the second closest in the last decade, according to the space agency itself. POT.

The supernova would have occurred about 20 million years ago, when a giant old star exploded in a violent nuclear fusion reaction. The light from this explosion reached the Itagaki telescope on May 19, 2023, to be later confirmed by other observatories.

Thanks to these factors, the supernova would constitute a unique opportunity for its study, although it is too weak to be observed with the naked eye, so external observation from other telescopes was required to confirm it.

After its discovery, the community has focused on the observation and study of the supernova under different instruments. Therefore, we can soon expect great advances to be presented in specialized journals of the scientific community.

Studying nearby supernovae can help us better understand these phenomena and their impact on our environment. In the end they are events that release enormous amounts of energy and heavy materials with everything and cosmic rays, as well as gravitational waves.

So his analysis is vital to understanding the basic constitution of the universe.