One of the nearer supernovas of recent years was discovered last month in the bright nearby galaxy M100 [ http://www.seds.org…]. The supernova, dubbed SN 2006X [ http://www.rocheste…], is still near its maximum brightness and visible with a telescope toward the constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices [ http://www.astronom…]) The supernova, pictured above [ http://www.eso.org/…], has been identified as Type Ia [ http://en.wikipedia…] indicating that a white dwarf star [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in the picturesque spiral [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] galaxy has gone near its Chandrasekhar limit [ http://physics.ship…] and exploded. Although hundreds of supernovas are now discovered each year by automated searches, nearby supernova [ http://www.badastro…] are rare and important because they frequently become bright enough to be studied by many telescopes and are near enough for their immediate surroundings to be spatially resolved. Supernova 2006X [ http://en.wikipedia…]'s host galaxy M100 resides [ http://heasarc.nasa…] in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] located about 50 million light years [ http://chandra.harv…] from Earth.
Explanation
One of the nearer supernovas of recent years was discovered last month in the bright nearby galaxy M100 [ http://www.seds.org…]. The supernova, dubbed SN 2006X [ http://www.rocheste…], is still near its maximum brightness and visible with a telescope toward the constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices [ http://www.astronom…]) The supernova, pictured above [ http://www.eso.org/…], has been identified as Type Ia [ http://en.wikipedia…] indicating that a white dwarf star [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in the picturesque spiral [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] galaxy has gone near its Chandrasekhar limit [ http://physics.ship…] and exploded. Although hundreds of supernovas are now discovered each year by automated searches, nearby supernova [ http://www.badastro…] are rare and important because they frequently become bright enough to be studied by many telescopes and are near enough for their immediate surroundings to be spatially resolved. Supernova 2006X [ http://en.wikipedia…]'s host galaxy M100 resides [ http://heasarc.nasa…] in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] located about 50 million light years [ http://chandra.harv…] from Earth.
