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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Does anyone have plans to wander outside after twilight with their binoculars/telescopes this evening? The supernova is located by the “panhandle” of the big dipper.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Jay<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>From the SFGate:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>A dying star that exploded 21 million years ago in a cataclysmic burst of energy called a supernova has sent its light streaming across the cosmos, leaving a pinpoint of light in the sky that Bay Area residents with a good pair of binoculars should be able to see over the next two nights.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>The supernova, brighter than all the stars in the universe combined, blazed from a galaxy near the constellation Big Dipper, according Peter Nugent, an astronomer and senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who detected its light last week.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>Despite its explosive brilliance, the light is dim at this distance. Its faint light will reach its peak tonight and Friday night, and should be visible in the clear night sky through a quality pair of binoculars or with amateur telescopes of 3 inches or larger, Nugent said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>He picked up the supernova soon after the explosion became visible on Aug. 23 in an image sent from an automated telescope at the famed Palomar Observatory near San Diego. Astronomers haven't seen a supernova so close to Earth in 25 years, he said - nor one as bright in more than 40 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>While the explosion was immense, it involved a star of only modest dimensions - a white dwarf only 1.4 times the mass of our sun, Nugent said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>Supernovas are common, but most are more than a billion light-years away and are too faint to be visible except through the most powerful telescopes. So the opportunity to observe one only 21 million light-years away has astronomers aiming their telescopes at the blast from observatories around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>The Hubble Space Telescope has also been assigned to begin studying the physics and chemistry of the explosion, NASA officials said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>This supernova is classed as Type 1a, and is catalogued under the name PTF11kly. The exploding star was one member of a stellar pair, known as a binary system, that had already burned away its hydrogen and helium in thermonuclear explosions, leaving only its carbon and oxygen to fuel the final outburst, Nugent said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>Because the light intensity of supernovas is well-known, astronomers use them as "standard candles" to calculate the distances of far-off galaxies, and thus to measure the rate at which the entire universe is expanding under the mysterious influence of what is called dark energy, Nugent explained.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>Alex Filippenko, leader of a team of supernova observers at the UC Lick Observatory, said this newest one will prove valuable in helping astronomers to refine their distance calculations for those "standard candles."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>It should also shed new light on the exploding star's companion, Filippenko said. For example, astronomers might be able to determine whether the binary pair were both originally white dwarf stars, and whether the star that exploded might have been "stealing matter from its companion" as it built up toward its final blast, or - perhaps - whether both stars merged to explode in a single blast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'>Every explosion of a supernova sends out bursts of all the elements that make up every bit of matter in the universe. "All the calcium in our bones, all the iron in our blood, all the chemicals in our bodies, came originally from supernovas that exploded even before the Earth was formed," Nugent said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;background:white'><br><br><span class=apple-style-span>Read more:</span><span class=apple-converted-space> </span><span class=apple-style-span><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/07/BABK1L0P5I.DTL#ixzz1XO2Df85J"><span style='color:#003399'>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/07/BABK1L0P5I.DTL#ixzz1XO2Df85J</span></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>