A supernova duet in NGC 1448

Portrayed in this beautiful image is the spiral galaxy NGC 1448, with a prominent disc of young and very bright stars surrounding its small, shining core. Located about 60 million light-years away from the Sun, this galaxy has recently been a prolific factory of supernovae, the dramatic explosions that mark the death of stars : after a first one observed in this galaxy in 1983, two more have been discovered during the past decade.

Visible as a red dot inside the disc, in the upper right part of the image, is the supernova observed in 2003 (SN 2003hn), whereas another one, detected in 2001 (SN 2001el), can be noticed as a tiny blue dot in the central part of the image, just below the galaxy’s core. If captured at the peak of the explosion, a supernova might be as bright as the whole galaxy that hosts it.

This image was obtained using the FORS instrument mounted on one of the 8.2-metre telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope on top of Cerro Paranal, Chile. It combines exposures taken through three filters (B, V, R) on several occasions, between July 2002 and the end of November 2003. The field of view is 7 arcminutes.

Crediti:

ESO

A proposito dell'immagine

Identificazione:ngc1448-potw
Tipo:Osservazione
Data di pubblicazione:Giovedì 03 Dicembre 2009 23:18
Dimensione:2038 x 2005 px

A proposito delll'oggetto

Nome:NGC 1448
Tipo:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Distanza:60 Milione Anni luce
Constellation:Horologium
Categoria:Galaxies
Stars

Formati delle immagini

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Coordinate

Position (RA):3 44 31.80
Position (Dec):-44° 38' 23.40"
Field of view:6.80 x 6.69 arcminutes
Orientazione:Il Nord è a 90.0° a destra della verticale

Colori e filtri

BandaTelescopio
Ottico
B
Very Large Telescope
FORS2
Ottico
V
Very Large Telescope
FORS2
Ottico
R
Very Large Telescope
FORS2