In March 1996, the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 just happened to be pointed at the faraway galaxy cluster MS1054-0321 when it captured the light from an exploding star, called supernova 1996cl. The cluster is 8 billion light-years from Earth.
The Hubble telescope can clearly distinguish the supernova light from the glow of its parent galaxy. The larger image on the left shows the entire cluster of galaxies. The galaxy where the supernova was discovered is located in the boxed area. The bright knot of light from the supernova and the fainter glow from the parent galaxy are shown in the inset image on the right. The arrow points to the light from the supernova explosion.
The supernova was discovered by members of the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California. Perlmutter and his team made this discovery using images from the Hubble telescope and ground-based observatories. The Hubble data were furnished by Megan Donahue of the Space Telescope Science Institute. Donahue was using the Hubble telescope to study galaxy cluster MS1054-0321.
Members of the Supernova Project use ground-based telescopes to search for distant supernovae, such as 1996cl, by comparing multiple, wide-field images of galaxies and clusters of galaxies taken at different times. Supernovae are named for the year and the order in which they are found.
Supernova 1996cl is a Type Ia supernova. Exploding stars of this type are particularly useful for cosmology because they share a standard maximum brightness. By measuring this brightness, astronomers can determine a Type Ia's distance from Earth. Astronomers use this information to measure the expansion rate of the universe.
Credits
HST Image: Megan Donahue (STSCI);Ground Image: Isabella Gioia (Univ. of Hawaii), and NASA
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | MS1054-0321, SN 1996cl |
| R.A. Position | 10h 57m 0.19s |
| Dec. Position | -3° 37' 27.0" |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
