Supernova at its 'closest and brightest' in 40 years

Supernova at its 'closest and brightest' in 40 years: Remember that “supernova of a generation” we told you about a few weeks ago? The astronomers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the same crew that spotted the exploding star, are very excited about the supernova. As it’s the closest one to Earth that’s been discovered in the past 25 years, astronomers want to make sure you get a glimpse of the natural phenomenon and you won’t have to take a trip to your local planetarium to do so either. A simple pair of binoculars should do the trick.

Most nearby supernova of its kind to be discovered for 40 years should in their brightest on Wednesday and Thursday evening and will be visible through a good pair of binoculars.

Exploding stars, known as PTF11kly, was first spotted on August 24, scientists from Oxford University and the Palomar transient factory (PTF) using a robotic telescope in California.

It was discovered in the pinwheel Galaxy M101, a spiral galaxy 21 million light years away from us, located in the constellation of the famous the great bear.



Head of the Oxford, Dr. Mark Sullivan, said: "the most interesting thing is that this supernova-what is known is the way to use it as a kind of 1A, to measure the expansion of the universe. See one explode, so close to unprecedented details of these events was never in there.

"The best time to see just after sunset in the northern hemisphere. Need the dark sky and a good pair of binoculars, although even better would be a small telescope.  "

Found more than 1000 scientists PTF supernovae, since it began operating in 2008, but they believe that the most important discovery may be still. This classification supernova occurred as close to the last time was in 1972.

They say that the discovery of M101, also known as the ' Plough ', track to the end of the handle to the formation of the search and the search for other star Mirza and M101 has four degrees to the East.