This is a Hubble Space Telescope view looking long ago and far away at a supernova that exploded over 10 billion years ago. The supernova's light is just arriving at Earth because it has traveled more than 10 billion light-years (redshift 1.914) across space.
The supernova, designated SN UDS10Wil, is nicknamed SN Wilson, after the 28th U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson. At the time it exploded, the universe was in its early formative years where stars were being born at a rapid rate.
Astronomers spotted SN Wilson in December 2010 in the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) field. The small box in the top image pinpoints SN Wilson's host galaxy in the CANDELS survey. The image is a blend of visible and near-infrared light, taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The astronomers' search technique involved taking multiple near-infrared images with WFC3 spaced roughly 50 days apart over the span of three years, looking for a supernova's faint glow.
The three bottom images, taken in near-infrared light with WFC3, demonstrate how the astronomers found the supernova. The image at far left shows the host galaxy without SN Wilson. The middle image, taken a year earlier, reveals the galaxy with SN Wilson. The supernova cannot be seen because it is too close to the center of its host galaxy. To detect the supernova, astronomers subtracted the left image from the middle image to see the light from SN Wilson, shown in the image at far right.
The astronomers then used WFC3's spectrometer and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to verify SN Wilson's distance and to decode its light, finding the unique signature of a Type Ia supernova.
Credits
NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI and JHU), and D. Jones and S. Rodney (JHU)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | CANDELS Ultra Deep Survey; Supernova Wilson, SN UDS10Wil (inset) |
| Object Description | Deep survey and Type Ia Supernova (inset images) |
| R.A. Position | 02h 17m 46.0s |
| Dec. Position | -5° 15' 23.0" |
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Distance | Redshift: z = 1.914 (inset images) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST data from proposal : S. Faber (University of California, Santa Cruz) and H. Ferguson (STScI); and proposal : A. Riess (STScI/JHU). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/IR (CANDELS), HST>WFC3/IR (inset images) |
| Exposure Dates | December 30, 2010, and December 2, 2011 (inset images) |
| Filters | Deep survey: F125W, F160W, F606W, and F814W Inset images: F125W (J) and F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | CANDELS image: Blue: F606W Green: F814W Red: F125W + F160W Supernova inset images: Grayscale: F125W (J) + F160W (H) |
| Compass Image |  |
| 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. |
