Peculiar, junior-sized supernova discovered by New York teen

A 14-year-old student from New York has apparently become the youngest person in the world to discover a supernova, the weakest-ever found in a nearby galaxy.

Astronomers have confirmed that the supernova discovered in November last year by Caroline Moore — called SN 2008ha — is a new type of stellar explosion, 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a supernova.

Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen.

Even though this explosion was a weakling compared to most supernovae, for a short time SN 2008ha was 25 million times brighter than the sun. However, since it is 70 million light years away, it appeared very faint viewed from Earth.

Caroline was able to discover the object using a relatively small telescope, but some of the most advanced teleskopes in the world were needed to determine the nature of the explosion.

The data has been verified by Magellan telescopes in Chile, the MMT telescope in Arizona, the Gemini and Keck telescopes in Hawaii, and NASA Swift satellite.

“Coincidentally, the youngest person to ever discover a supernova found one of the most peculiar and interesting supernovae ever,” said Alex Filippenko, the leader of the University of California, Berkeley supernova group. The paper in this regard is due to appear in next issue of the Astronomical Journal.

“This shows that no matter what your age, anyone can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the Universe,” Filippenko said.

The peculiar object effectively bridged the gap between a nova (a nuclear explosion on the surface of an old, compact star called a white dwarf) and a type Ia supernova (the destructive death of a white dwarf caused by a runaway nuclear reaction starting deep in the star).

SN 2008ha likely was a failed supernova where the explosion was unable to destroy the entire star.

“If a normal supernova is a nuclear bomb, then SN 2008ha is a bunker buster,” said team leader Ryan Foley, Clay fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and first author on the paper reporting the findings.

In typical supernova explosions, light from different chemical elements (such as calcium or iron) is smeared out across the electromagnetic spectrum by the Doppler effect (the same principle that makes a police siren change pitch as it passes).

Because the ejected bits of the star were “only” moving at 4.5 million miles per hour (compared to 22 million miles per hour for a typical supernova), the light was not as smeared out, allowing the team to analyse the composition of the explosion to a new precision.

One reason astronomers haven’t seen this type of explosion before might be because they are so faint. “SN 2008ha was a really wimpy explosion,” said Filippenko.

Bureau Report