Update on the ongoing research of the closest supernovae in a decade
Click for original image, taken by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii.
Link here. Though the press release from UC-Berkeley focuses mostly of research being done by its astronomers, it also provides a very good overview of what all astronomers worldwide have been learning since Supernova SN 2023ixf was first discovered by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki in Japan on May 19, 2023 in the Pinwheel Galaxy, only 20 million light years away. This tidbit is probably the most significant:
Another group of astronomers led by Ryan Chornock, a UC Berkeley adjunct associate professor of astronomy, gathered spectroscopic data using the same telescope at Lick Observatory. Graduate student Wynn Jacobson-Galán and professor Raffaella Margutti analyzed the data to reconstruct the pre- and post-explosion history of the star, and found evidence that it had shed gas for the previous three to six years before collapsing and exploding. The amount of gas shed or ejected before the explosion could have been 5% of its total mass — enough to create a dense cloud of material through which the supernova ejecta had to plow.
Such data is going to help astronomers better predict when a star is about to go boom, by identifying similar behavior.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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Click for original image, taken by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii.
Link here. Though the press release from UC-Berkeley focuses mostly of research being done by its astronomers, it also provides a very good overview of what all astronomers worldwide have been learning since Supernova SN 2023ixf was first discovered by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki in Japan on May 19, 2023 in the Pinwheel Galaxy, only 20 million light years away. This tidbit is probably the most significant:
Another group of astronomers led by Ryan Chornock, a UC Berkeley adjunct associate professor of astronomy, gathered spectroscopic data using the same telescope at Lick Observatory. Graduate student Wynn Jacobson-Galán and professor Raffaella Margutti analyzed the data to reconstruct the pre- and post-explosion history of the star, and found evidence that it had shed gas for the previous three to six years before collapsing and exploding. The amount of gas shed or ejected before the explosion could have been 5% of its total mass — enough to create a dense cloud of material through which the supernova ejecta had to plow.
Such data is going to help astronomers better predict when a star is about to go boom, by identifying similar behavior.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
These images, in addition to being beautiful, stretch the imagination into considering just how big the universe is.
help astronomers better predict when a star is about to go boom
While interesting – fascinating, even – who cares?
The reason I ask is because current funding levels are unsustainable. At some point in the not-so-distant future, someone is going to have to make priority decisions about the many millions of other-people’s-money that we’re pouring into this sort of research.
Perhaps fund multi-purpose instrumentation but (some? most?) research _using_ those instruments are self-funded.
markedup2 asked: “who cares?”
The people who want to understand the workings of the Sun care. The more they understand about other stars the more they understand about Sol. We all should care about Sol, as it gives us all the energy that we have, keeps us warm, and keeps us near the planets and asteroids that will supply many future materials and living locations. You may think that it is important to understand the rest of the solar system, but it is also important to understand the star that makes it possible.