Supernova SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel galaxy, 21 million light-years away
Sebastien Gomez et al.
A star has exploded in a galaxy just 21 million light-years from Earth, giving astronomers a rare opportunity to watch a supernova unfold in real time in exquisite detail.
Supernova SN 2023ixf was discovered in the Pinwheel galaxy, or M101, on May 19 by a Japanese amateur astronomer named Koichi Itagaki. It is the closest supernova to Earth since SN 2014J in 2014, about 11 million light-years away. The supernova, which is already eclipsing its host galaxy, is expected to peak in brightness in the coming days, but could remain visible for years.
While thousands of supernovae are observed each year, 2023ixf’s proximity means it can be studied in much greater detail than others. Telescopes around the world were swept in its direction “within hours of its discovery”, says Azalea Bostroem at the University of Arizona, deducing that it was probably a Type II supernova, in which a supergiant star runs out of fuel and collapses in on itself before exploding.
Bostroem was assigned time on the Hubble Space Telescope to study ultraviolet light from the explosion. So far, it appears the supernova is interacting with material previously ejected by the star, which Hubble observations could dig deeper into. “How stars lose mass is one of the most interesting questions,” says Bostroem.
Two or three stars have been identified as the supernova’s possible ancestor, including a type of massive star known as the Wolf-Rayet star, but the supernova is currently too bright to determine which. Hubble or even the James Webb Space Telescope could tell us more when the supernova fades.
Observations from 2023ixf can provide invaluable data on our understanding of how supernovae unfold. “It will be like a Rosetta Stone supernova,” says Bostroem. “It will be one of those that we compare everything to.”
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