Similar to the discovery story of supernova 1987a by Ian Shelton...but he was a professional astronomer.
I can only imagine Mr. Buso's feelings when he got this in the mail:
Otero, S. & Buso, V. Discovery Certificate for Object 2016gkg. TNS Astronomical Transient Report No. 5381, https://wis-tns.weizmann.ac.il/object/2016gkg/discovery-cert (Transient Name Server, 2016)
From the Nature paper. Too bad they didn't name it "The Buso Supernova." But then you know "2016gkg" sounds so much more "sciencey."
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So the supernova actually occurred 80 million years ago and the light from it is just now reaching us. It's pretty neat how light that is 80 million years old does not appear to be any different from light that is brand new.
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Thanks for the article! Would like to know the time between Mr. Buso's exposures in the animation shown, but I will look that up.
Exciting event. But at 80 million light-years, I'm not sure I would call NGC 613 a "nearby" spiral galaxy. Dozens of galaxies are 8 light-years or closer. Andromeda is about 2.5. Should also mention that we are seeing an event that occured 80 million years ago.
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What wows me most is the actual event occurred 80 million years ago, the
light of which just reached us. I become delirious trying to comprehend
that kind of distance.
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Very cool. This is a very inexpensive optic (Skywatcher 16") mounted on what looks like something similar to the Paramount ME. So a $2k optic on a $15k mount.
This is an amazing capture, but we also had a the capture of some asteroid fragments hitting Jupiter not too long ago (Chris Go and a guy in Australia whose name I'm forgetting). The sky is dynamic. I've seen a dozen or two comets in the past few years, one visibly moved in the eyepiece. So, anyhow....it's a great hobby.
People who are not familiar with what amateur astronomy can do these days might check out the images at damianpeach.com . There are others too, but he is top notch. This supernova capture however is "deep sky," which is a different specialization requiring different equipment.
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Shouldn't Supernova 2016gkg be called the "Victor Buso" Supernova? Talk about astronomical numbers - the chance of being at the right place and the right time 80 million years after a star goes Supernova to see it. Cool!
And I was thrilled "discovering" Saturn with my little Sears Best telescope as a kid! Except others have seen it before.
Perhaps it was a Supernova shock-wave that flattened Earth less than 10,000 years ago.
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" It is not an explosion, but a implosion, the structure collapses inward into itself"Well,... this is what is suggesting the astronomical models from Matrix/DNA Theory. I think that nobody can prove who is right and wrong, because the suggestion that it is an explosion is based on theory also, there are no enough data for saying it is a proved fact. I prefer Matrix/DNA Theory because its models suggests a better explanation: the astro's nucleus is growing by "eating" the external geologic layers and when arrives to the last one, it collapses and the luminous nucleus florishes as a star....
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The real story here is not the discovery of the supernova, it is the fact that important discoveries can be made without big budgets. There will always be new things to discover; the onion that science peels back has an infinity of layers, but increasingly science is dominated by "big science" projects like LIGO, the Super Collidor, and Hubble space telescope, all of which cost in the billions of dollars. So, hooray for the little guy, hooray for Victor!
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He only saw a supernova, but didn't learn much of anything. It takes the scientists and big telescopes to actually learn anything about it. Otherwise it's just a blip. Yes, but hooray for Victor. Him alerting scientists is helpful.
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In the words of Oliver....
"Please, sir.... I want some more!"
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I adore reading NYT science articles, so thanks again NYT!
That being said ... it would be nice if those articles would be understandable for ordinary citizens too.
As I'm not an astronomer, of course I already heard the word "supernova", but I don't have any idea of what it exactly means. So I clicked on the link "supernovas" in this article, hoping to find it out what a supernova (hypothesis, based on the word: a gigantic star ...?) actually is ... only to find yet another article about a exploding supernova.
Wouldn't it be possible, in the future, to at least include a definition (vulgarizing version) of the scientific notion you want to report "the news" on, so that people at least know what they're reading?
For those who had the same question as I did: I just looked it up, and if I understood well, apparently "supernova" doesn't refer to a gigantic star, but to the very process of dying through explosion.
In an age where "fake news" is having tremendous/horrible political consequences, science is more important than ever, but how not to increase certain people's aversion when they hear/read the word "scientific" if even scientific articles in high-quality newspapers don't include the basic information needed to understand what the article is all about ... ?
Thanking you in advance!
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Wikipedia may be very helpful here. I find it often is.
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Hi, great question. But there's so much science and technology out there that NYT couldn't fully explain background on all these things each time some news happens. I find wikipedia is great for science overviews and I refer to it often. There are also many great PBS shows (like Nova, coincidentally) that you can look up.
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Good point, Ana. However, I believe that when journalists provide links they are implicitly vouching for the truth of the source. The work required to do that is just too much to justify routinely including lots of basic links. I'm not a journalist, so I will suggest that in general Wikipedia is a good place to start. I routinely look things up in Wikipedia and have seldom been led badly astray by it. For "supernova", the first sentence in the Wikipedia entry is:
"A supernova (/ˌsuːpərnoʊvə/ plural: supernovae /ˌsuːpərnoʊviː/ or supernovas, abbreviations: SN and SNe) is a transient astronomical event that occurs during the last stellar evolutionary stages of a massive star's life, whose dramatic and catastrophic destruction is marked by one final titanic explosion. This causes the sudden appearance of a "new" bright star, before slowly fading from sight over several weeks or months."
My training is in physics, and I have read much about supernovas. The Wikipedia article is a decent start to a complicated subject. In the Middle Ages it was considered a big event when a "new" star would appear in what people thought of as the fixed firmament. Some new stars were much brighter than others, hence the latin name supernova.
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It’s great to be alive when so much new technology is coming to the fore in astronomy but this shows that fortuity can have a lot to do with mankind’s Promethium quest for knowledge of the workings of the reality of the Universe.
Congratulations Victor and thank you for your amazing discovery.
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Promethean. I luvvv autocorrect.
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