On a casual night in May, Alex Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, was showing off star clusters and galaxies at a party.
Little did he know, he had also captured an image of a newly exploding star, or supernova, hours before it was officially discovered by an amateur astronomer in Japan.
This supernova, named SN 2023ixf, turned out to be a goldmine for scientists.
It’s the closest one to Earth since 2014, located just 21 million light-years away.
Researchers, including Filippenko and his team, switched their plans and aimed their telescopes at this cosmic event.
The reason it’s super exciting?
They got to study the light emitted by the supernova in a way that’s never been done before, helping them understand the shape and behavior of exploding stars.
Normally, studying the light from such a faraway object helps scientists understand its shape. This method is called spectropolarimetry.
With this supernova, they could actually see how the shape changed over time, giving clues about the star before it exploded.
It appears that the star was throwing out material in a lopsided manner, making its surroundings uneven. When the star finally exploded, its ejected material had to punch through this uneven cloud of gas it had previously created.
These discoveries tell a dramatic tale of a red supergiant star about 10 to 20 times the size of our Sun. First, the star tossed out clouds of gas for a few years.
Then, when it exploded, the material it threw out punched through this surrounding gas, eventually spreading out to form a cloud of debris.
And there’s more! The explosion left behind a dense core that could either be a neutron star or a black hole.
These types of supernovae are important because scientists use them like cosmic yardsticks to measure distances in the universe.
Another group of researchers found that this star had been losing gas for about three to six years before it finally exploded. The star might have lost up to 5% of its total mass during that time—enough to create a thick cloud that the explosion had to move through.
These findings could shake up what scientists thought they knew about red supergiant stars like this one.
The supernova offers an incredible chance to scrutinize how stars evolve, explode, and impact the universe.
The best part? This supernova is still showing us more. Scientists have only written the first chapter of this story, as the light from the explosion continues to reach Earth. Thanks to a wealth of detail, they can test and refine their theories, deepening our understanding of the cosmos.
Filippenko made this early discovery during public outreach, using a telescope designed for amateur astronomers.
He and many other amateur astronomers published their early observations of the supernova, proving that sometimes, incredible scientific discoveries can start in your backyard—or at a party.
So, the next time you’re stargazing, remember: the universe is full of surprises, and sometimes those surprises are closer than you think!
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Source: UC Berkeley.
