A big contraulations to Dave Grennan for discovering the first Supernova from Ireland - I knew you would do it Dave
. The following is from Terry Moseley's email alerts...
FIRST IRISH SUPERNOVA! Dave Grennan, discoverer of two asteroids, the first of which was the first one discovered in Ireland for a century and a half, has now discovered a supernova in a distant galaxy - the first ever such discovery from Ireland. And all from his own observatory in Raheny, North Dublin! The galaxy is 290 million LY away, so the star actually exploded before even the age of the dinosaurs, and the light has been travelling through space ever since! There are various types of supernovae (use your favourite search engine for more info!), and this one seems to be a "type 1 b/c", but with various peculiarities, making it particularly interesting. This type is caused by rapid transfer of material from one star to another in a close binary system, making the receiving star unstable so that it undergoes a massive explosion.
Dave's discovery was made during a search undertaken on September 17th, but as independent confirmation is required, it has only just been officially announced. It is now designated as 2010ik. See
www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/lists/RecentSupernovae.htmlSupernova expert Prof. Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University Belfast and his team used the 2.5metre Nordic Optical Telescope at La Palma in the Canaries to analyse the spectrum & confirm the type of supernova explosion.
Very many congratulations Dave - all your skill, determination & hard work pays off in the long run!
