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SN 2006gy:
NASA's Chandra Sees Brightest Supernova Ever
According to observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and
ground-based optical telescopes, the supernova SN 2006gy is the
brightest and most energetic stellar explosion ever recorded and may be
a long-sought new type of explosion. The top panel of this graphic is
an artist's illustration that shows what SN 2006gy may have looked like
if viewed at a close distance. The fireworks-like material in white
shows the explosion of an extremely massive star. This debris is pushing
back two lobes of cool, red gas that were expelled in a large eruption
from the star before it exploded. The green, blue and yellow regions in
these lobes shows where gas is being heated in a shock front as the
explosion material crashes into it and pushes it backwards. Most of the
optical light generated by the supernova is thought to come from debris
that has been heated by radioactivity, but some likely comes from the
shocked gas.
The bottom left panel is an infrared image, using adaptive optics at the
Lick Observatory, of NGC 1260, the galaxy containing SN 2006gy. The
dimmer source to the lower left in that panel is the center of NGC 1260,
while the much brighter source to the upper right is SN 2006gy. The
panel to the right shows Chandra's X-ray image of the same field of
view, again showing the nucleus of NGC 1260 and SN 2006gy. The Chandra
observation allowed astronomers to determine that SN 2006gy was indeed
caused by the collapse of an extremely massive star, and not the most
likely alternative explanation for the explosion, the destruction of a
low-mass star. If the supernova was caused by a white dwarf star
exploding into a dense, hydrogen-rich environment, SN 2006gy would have
been about 1,000 times brighter in X-rays than what Chandra detected.
| Fast Facts for SN 2006gy: |
| Credit |
Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; X-ray: NASA/CXC/UC Berkeley/N.Smith et al.; IR: Lick/UC Berkeley/J.Bloom & C.Hansen |
| Scale |
Each bottom panel is 2.75 arcsec across. |
| Category |
Supernovas & Supernova Remnants |
| Coordinates (J2000) |
RA 03h 17m 27.10s | Dec +41º 24' 19.50" |
| Constellation |
Perseus |
| Observation Date |
November 14, 2006
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| Observation Time |
8 hours |
| Obs. ID |
8473
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| Color Code |
Intensity |
| Instrument |
ACIS |
| References | Smith, N. et al. 2007, ApJ, 666, 1116 |
| Distance Estimate |
About 238,000,000 light years |
| Release Date |
May 07, 2007 |
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