| Other designations | SN 2009gj |
|---|---|
| Event type | Supernova  |
| Spectral class | IIb |
| Date | June 20, 2009 |
| Constellation | Sculptor |
| Right ascension | 00h30m28s.56 |
| Declination | -33° 12' 56".0 |
| Epoch | J2000.0 |
| Distance | 60 million light years |
| Host | NGC 134 |
| Peak apparent magnitude | 15.9 [1] |
SN 2009gj was a supernova located approximately 60 million light years away from Earth. It was discovered on June 20, 2009, by New Zealand amateur astronomer and dairy farmer Stuart Parker. [2] [3]
A supernova is a powerful and luminous stellar explosion. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion. The original object, called the progenitor, either collapses to a neutron star or black hole, or it is completely destroyed. The peak optical luminosity of a supernova can be comparable to that of an entire galaxy, before fading over several weeks or months.
SN 1987A was a type II supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy satellite of the Milky Way. It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs from Earth and was the closest observed supernova since Kepler's Supernova. 1987A's light reached Earth on February 23, 1987, and as the earliest supernova discovered that year, was labeled "1987A". Its brightness peaked in May, with an apparent magnitude of about 3.
A near-Earth supernova is an explosion resulting from the death of a star that occurs close enough to the Earth to have noticeable effects on Earth's biosphere.
The SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS) is a network of neutrino detectors designed to give early warning to astronomers in the event of a supernova in the Milky Way, our home galaxy, or in a nearby galaxy such as the Large Magellanic Cloud or the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy.
SN 2005cs was a supernova in the Whirlpool Galaxy. It was a type II supernova, discovered in 2005 by Wolfgang Kloehr, a German amateur astronomer.
Robert Owen Evans, OAM is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia and an amateur astronomer who holds the record for visual discoveries of supernovae (42).
The Supernova Cosmology Project is one of two research teams that determined the likelihood of an accelerating universe and therefore a positive cosmological constant, using data from the redshift of Type Ia supernovae. The project is headed by Saul Perlmutter at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with members from Australia, Chile, France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Adam Guy Riess is an American astrophysicist and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute and is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes. Riess shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
The known history of supernova observation goes back to 185 AD, when supernova SN 185 appeared, the oldest appearance of a supernova recorded by humankind. Several additional supernovae within the Milky Way galaxy have been recorded since that time, with SN 1604 being the most recent supernova to be observed in this galaxy.
Type Ib and Type Ic supernovae are categories of supernovae that are caused by the stellar core collapse of massive stars. These stars have shed or been stripped of their outer envelope of hydrogen, and, when compared to the spectrum of Type Ia supernovae, they lack the absorption line of silicon. Compared to Type Ib, Type Ic supernovae are hypothesized to have lost more of their initial envelope, including most of their helium. The two types are usually referred to as stripped core-collapse supernovae.
NGC 2770 is a type SASc spiral galaxy located about 88 million light years away, in the constellation Lynx. Three Type Ib supernovae have occurred there recently: SN 1999eh, SN 2007uy, and SN 2008D. The last of these was the first supernova detected by the X-rays released very early on in its formation, rather than by the optical light emitted during the later stages, which allowed the first moments of the outburst to be observed. It is possible that NGC 2770's interactions with a suspected companion galaxy may have created the massive stars causing this activity.
Puckett Observatory is a private astronomical observatory located in the state of Georgia. It is owned and operated by Tim Puckett. Its primary observation goals are the study of comets and the discovery of supernovae. To facilitate the latter goal it sponsors the Puckett Observatory World Supernova Search whose astronomers have discovered 369 supernovae.
SN 2005gj was a supernova located approximately 864 million light years away from Earth. It was discovered on September 29, 2005, by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Nearby Supernova Factory. 2005gj was noted because it had qualities of both type Ia and type IIn supernovae, and because hydrogen emission lines were found in its spectrum. These hydrogen lines, which were found on the spectrum at redshift z=0.0613, are thought to be indicative of interactions with a circumstellar medium by the supernova's ejected matter or white dwarf progenitor. Such emission lines are extremely rare in Type Ia supernovae – only one other Type Ia, SN 2002ic, has been observed to exhibit the same properties. However, 2005jg's CSM interaction was much stronger and more clearly observed than 2002ic's. The mass-loss history 2005gj's hydrogen lines suggest has been cited as evidence that Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) hypergiants can be progenitors of thermonuclear supernovae.
SN 2008ha was a type Ia supernova which was first observed around November 7, 2008 in the galaxy UGC 12682, which lies in the constellation Pegasus at a distance of about 21.3 megaparsecs (69 Mly) from Earth.
NGC 5177 is a galaxy. Based on a redshift of 6467 km/s the galaxy is crudely estimated to be about 300 million light-years away.
SN 2010lt is a supernova located in the galaxy UGC 3378 in Camelopardalis. It was discovered by amateur astronomers Kathryn Aurora Gray, her father Paul Gray, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and David J. Lane of Stillwater Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada. Upon discovery, Kathryn Aurora Gray became the youngest person to ever discover a supernova, being 10 years old when she did so. The previous record was held by the 14-year-old Caroline Moore.
SN 2014J was a type-Ia supernova in Messier 82 discovered in mid-January 2014. It was the closest type-Ia supernova discovered for 42 years, and none have been closer as of 2018. The supernova was discovered by chance during an undergraduate teaching session at the University of London Observatory. It peaked on 31 January 2014, reaching an apparent magnitude of 10.5. SN 2014J was the subject of an intense observing campaign by professional astronomers and was bright enough to be seen by amateur astronomers.
NGC 134 is a barred spiral galaxy that resembles the Milky Way with its spiral arms loosely wrapped around a bright, bar-shaped central region. Its loosely bound spiral arms categorize it as Hubble-type Sbc. It is 60 million light years away, and part of the Sculptor constellation.
NGC 732 is a lenticular galaxy located 250 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It was discovered by astronomer Édouard Stephan on December 5, 1883 and is member of Abell 262.
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