An Amateur Astronomer Accidentally Caught The First-Ever Photo of an Exploding Star

Amateur astronomer Victor Buso was testing out a new camera he had bought , he decided to try his new camera out on spiral galaxy NGC 613 as it offered a good viewing possibility but in doing so he became the first person ever to capture images of a star going supernova.

He was testing his camera on 20 September 2016, mounted on a 40-centimetre (16-inch) telescope. To do this, he picked spiral galaxy NGC 613, located at a distance of about 80 million light-years away in the southern constellation Sculptor - a nice target because it was directly overhead.

Over the course of about one and a half hours, he took pictures of the galaxy at 20 seconds of exposure time, to avoid saturation by nearby city lights. During the first 20 minutes, the photos all appeared the same. But then Buso noticed something - a single brightening point of light at the end of one of the spiral galaxy's arms. It wasn't long before astronomers learned of the find, and realised that Buso had captured something extraordinary.

According to the researchers, the chances of such a discovery are one in 10 million - maybe even one in 100 million.
"Buso's data are exceptional," Filippenko said. "This is an outstanding example of a partnership between amateur and professional astronomers."
www.sciencealert.com...

Citizen science strikes again , congratulations Victor you made history.

a reply to: gortex

Wow.

That guy is LUCKY.

For the record, not everyone get to actually record an exploding star - we usually see them before and after they've exploded, but we've never caught them in the act... Until now.

S+F

originally posted by: gortex
Amateur astronomer Victor Buso was testing out a new camera he had bought , he decided to try his new camera out on spiral galaxy NGC 613 as it offered a good viewing possibility but in doing so he became the first person ever to capture images of a star going supernova.

The field of amateur astronomy is impressive in many ways. Thanks to individual wealth and rapidly advancing technology, any Joe Blow who can afford a good camera can do work that only professional astronomers could do until a very short time ago.

Although the snark guy in me says that this kind of thing really only has entertainment value.

originally posted by: swanne
For the record, not everyone get to actually record an exploding star

What!? Then I'm sending mine back. What a rip-off.

a reply to: gortex

Best photo bomb ever!



Maybe we will get that Event Horizon Project pic too! Amazing that after all these years of looking at the sky that there are still firsts like this one!

What is really cool is that he posted his photo, then real astronomers pointed their telescopes in the area and verified what had happened. They did the write up and included the guy's photo with their paper! He is now a published scientist.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Although the snark guy in me says that this kind of thing really only has entertainment value.

To us perhaps but I'm sure the professional scientific community will get more from the images.

originally posted by: gortex
To us perhaps but I'm sure the professional scientific community will get more from the images.

Snark Guy: Yeah, but who cares about those eggheads?

a reply to: gortex

When I see photos of explosions and collisions, my first thoughts are, "I wonder if billions of intelligent being just died." Rather than get excited, sudden mass destruction makes me sad.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: gortex
To us perhaps but I'm sure the professional scientific community will get more from the images.

Snark Guy: Yeah, but who cares about those eggheads?

Answer to Snark Guy: Anyone who has an interest in space exploration , it's those eggheads who bring us discoveries that we wonder at and that expand our minds.

originally posted by: gortex
Answer to Snark Guy: Anyone who has an interest in space exploration , it's those eggheads who bring us discoveries that we wonder at and that expand our minds.

Oh, I didn't say I wasn't entertained!

a reply to: carewemust

When I see photos of explosions and collisions, my first thoughts are, "I wonder if billions of intelligent being just died." Rather than get excited, sudden mass destruction makes me sad.

That's the way of things , nothing is forever ... not even us.
Perhaps if they were intelligent they foresaw the problem and moved out rather than spending all their time and resources fighting each other.

a reply to: gortex

The star had already blown off its surface and had reduced in size. Any civilization would had to already left before that.

During tests of a new camera, Víctor Buso captured images of a distant galaxy before and after the supernova's "shock breakout" - when a supersonic pressure wave from the exploding core of the star hits and heats gas at the star's surface to a very high temperature, causing it to emit light and rapidly brighten.

To date, no one has been able to capture the "first optical light" from a supernova, since stars explode seemingly at random in the sky, and the light from shock breakout is fleeting. The new data provide important clues to the physical structure of the star just before its catastrophic demise and to the nature of the explosion itself.

This allowed the international team to determine that the explosion was a Type IIb supernova: the explosion of a massive star that had previously lost most of its hydrogen envelope, a species of exploding star first observationally identified by Filippenko in 1987.

phys.org - Amateur astronomer captures rare first light from massive exploding star.

They could not determine that without a bunch of eggheads from around the world. Busso took his picture in 2016. All the observations in 7 spectrum frequencies from around the world went through the 3-sigma data scrub for write up. Not until Feb. 2018 did the peer review publication happen.

Real science takes time!

Meanwhile, I'm still taking pictures of my thumb when using my "smart" phone (if it is so smart why does it take so many pics of my thumb?)

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Meanwhile, I'm still taking pictures of my thumb when using my "smart" phone (if it is so smart why does it take so many pics of my thumb?)

Thumbnail pictures ?


It's nice when an amateur astronomer gets payback for their dedication and financial outlay , I keep promising myself a decent telescope but there's always something else more practical that takes the money , maybe one day Santa will deliver.

originally posted by: gortex
That's the way of things , nothing is forever ... not even us. Perhaps if they were intelligent they foresaw the problem and moved out rather than spending all their time and resources fighting each other.

Well, it's 80 million light years away. So it all happened 80 million years ago, back when the Earth was an ice ball with multi-celled critters first appearing. If they got on a really big (let's say it's 200,000 metric tons), fast spaceship accelerating at 1g, that would get them to Earth in a little over 80 million years.

So maybe all those UFOs are them.

Wow!
I hope our star doesn't explode

a reply to: gortex

I wonder if they have a figure in their head for the frequency of these supernovas, and how that might effect any current thinking on the age of the universe say. They must happen all the time.

originally posted by: visitedbythem
Wow! I hope our star doesn't explode

Now that's entertainment!

originally posted by: visitedbythem
Wow!
I hope our star doesn't explode

It won't. Stars like our Sun become red giants, gradually using all their hydrogen and helium and becoming a red giant that will extend beyond the orbits of Earth, Mars and Venus. Perhaps Pluto will become warm enough to live on.

originally posted by: smurfy
a reply to: gortex

I wonder if they have a figure in their head for the frequency of these supernovas, and how that might effect any current thinking on the age of the universe say. They must happen all the time.

This article has a good explanation. Any galaxy has a supernova once per century. But there are a hundred billions galaxies, so the probability is 30 supernova/second. You could take that number and multiply it with the ratio of the the field of view area of a telescone vs. the area of whole sky to figure out the probabilty of photographing a supernova.

www.dailygalaxy.com...

a reply to: gortex

Accidentally?
Pfft. Big deal

Now, if he had gotten the pictures on purpose...that would be something.