Hubble Spots Expanding Light Echo around Supernova
Light from a supernova explosion in the nearby starburst galaxy M82 is reverberating off a huge dust cloud in interstellar space.
The supernova, called SN 2014J, occurred at the upper right of M82, and is marked by an “X.” The supernova was discovered on Jan. 21, 2014.
The inset images at top reveal an expanding shell of light from the stellar explosion sweeping through interstellar space, called a “light echo.” The images were taken 10 months to nearly two years after the violent event (Nov. 6, 2014 to Oct. 12, 2016). The light is bouncing off a giant dust cloud that extends 300 to 1,600 light-years from the supernova and is being reflected toward Earth.
SN 2014J is classified as a Type Ia supernova and is the closest such blast in at least four decades. A Type Ia supernova occurs in a binary star system consisting of a burned-out white dwarf and a companion star. The white dwarf explodes after the companion dumps too much material onto it.
The image of M82 reveals a bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds, and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions.
Close encounters with its larger neighbor, the spiral galaxy M81, is compressing gas in M82 and stoking the birth of multiple star clusters. Some of these stars live for only a short time and die in cataclysmic supernova blasts, as shown by SN 2014J.
Located 11.4 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the “Cigar Galaxy” because of the elliptical shape produced by the oblique tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight.
The M82 image was taken in 2006 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The inset images of the light echo also were taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The science team members are Y. Yang of Texas A&M University, College Station, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; P.J. Brown of Texas A&M University, College Station; L. Wang of Texas A&M University, College Station, and Purple Mountain Observatory, China; D. Baade, A. Cikota, F. Patat, and J. Spyromilio of the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Garching, Germany; M. Cracraft and W.B. Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland; P.A. Hoflich of Florida State University, Tallahassee; J. Maund and H.F. Stevance of the University of Sheffield, U.K.; X. Wang of Tsinghua University, Beijing Shi; and J.C. Wheeler of the University of Texas at Austin.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and Y. Yang (Texas A&M University and Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)Acknowledgment: M. Mountain (AURA) and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | SN 2014J in M82 |
| Object Description | Light echo around a supernova explosion |
| R.A. Position | 09 55 42.12 |
| Dec. Position | +69 40 25.9 |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Distance | 11.4 million light-years |
| Dimensions | Image is 7 arcmin across (about 23,000 light-years at the distance of M82) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposals , , and P.I. L. Wang (Texas A&M) |
| Instrument | ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | Mar. 2014 - Apr. 2016 |
| Filters | F435W, F555W, F658N, F814W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample various wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F435W Green: F555W Orange: F658N Red: F814W |
| 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. |
