New Supernova Found "Next Door" Getting Brighter

The spiral galaxy M95, as seen by the Very Large Telescope in Chile before the supernova appeared. 

A new supernova has been found in the nearby galaxy M95, astronomers have confirmed, and it’s one of the closest stellar deaths yet witnessed.

On March 16 professional astronomers and amateur observers detected the bright point of light on the outskirts of M95, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo, the lion. Since then, various teams have been watching the object closely.

Based on observations from around the world, the International Astronomical Union announced on Tuesday that the light is definitely an exploded star, now called SN 2012aw.

Most supernovae are discovered in much more distant galaxies, so the explosions are not detected until they’ve reached close to maximum brightness, said Ulisse Munari of Italy’s National Institute of Astrophysics.

But the new supernova is in a galaxy just 37 million light-years away—practically next door in astronomical terms.

“The detection threshold has been broken already,” Munari added, and the supernova should get even brighter in the coming days.

What’s more, some amateur astronomers happened to be taking pictures of M95 before SN 2012aw appeared.

Combined with an ongoing catalog of new images, the older shots will allow astronomers to study the very early stages of a supernova—perhaps helping to unravel what happens in the first hours of a star exploding.

For instance, SN 2012aw is what’s known as a Type II supernova, the result of a very massive star’s core collapsing.

According to Munari, astronomers “could take this opportunity to investigate how the initial shock propagated within the stellar structure” during the resulting explosion.