Hubble pinpoints red supergiant that exploded

[telfrow]

<font color="yellow">While astronomers can predict which stars will end their lives in a fiery explosion, surprisingly only five supernovas before now had been traced back to a known star, according to one of the astronomers, UC Berkeley astronomy professor Alex Filippenko. Most supernovas are too distant, or their progenitor stars too faint or in too crowded fields for astronomers to look back in historical sky photos in order to pinpoint the location and type of star. <br /><br />The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) today (Thursday, July 28) released photos of the beautiful Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, showing the location of the original star and the bright supernova just 12 days after its explosion was discovered. <br /><br />The supernova, dubbed SN 2005cs, belongs to a class of exploding stars called "Type II-plateau." A supernova of this type results from the collapse and subsequent explosion of a massive star whose light remains at a constant brightness (a "plateau") for a period of time. </font><br /><br />Full story here...<br />http://www.physorg.com/news5519.html<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[robnissen]

Couldn't agree more. Its just a damn shame that NASA is going to throw Hubble away. Although with the latest fiasco with the shuttle (we've fixed the foam problem, only extremely small foam pieces will fall off in the future, oops, a one pound piece just missed the shuttle...uh never mind), maybe flying the shuttle anywhere is too risky.

 

[ehs40]

what more do i need to say hubble is great!!!