astronomy

astronomy It all began on May 31, when French amateur astronomer Amédée Riou detected a "new" star in CCD images of the Whirlpool Galaxy. Riou's discovery was corroborated independently by Thomas Griga in Schwerte, Germany, the following day. By June 2, it had been confirmed by Tom Reiland in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania, and Stéphane Lamotte Bailey in France. According to Sky and Telescope Magazine, the Palomar Transient Factory and Galaxy Zoo's supernova project also detected the supernova. Images of the supernova candidate were beginning to circulate on the internet and Daniel Fischer, editor of the astronomy breaking news website.

Cosmos4U," tweeted the following message: "How cool is that?! I report the probable M 51 supernova to a German astro list - and immediately a great pic is taken: http://is.gd/hMAl1i." --cosmos4u, June 2, 2011 It just so happened that Derek Fox, Assistant Professor at Penn State University Astronomy and Astrophysics, noticed Fischer's tweet and forwarded the alert to Berkeley postdoctorate researcher Brad Cenko. As luck would have it, Cenko and his supervisor, Alex Filippenko, Professor of Astronomy at the the University of California, Berkeley, happened to be in the best possible location on the planet: controlling one of the twin 10-meter telescopes at the world-renowned Keck Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea, the highest peak in Hawai'i and home to 13 telescope systems. ANALYSIS: Explore a Lopsided Supernova High Humidity "To be at the world's greatest telescope at the time [a very bright, young supernova is] reported is not a very frequent occurrence!" Filippenko told Discovery News. "

We happened to have a Japanese film crew filming me for a documentary they're doing on dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the universe," he said, "so there was this team there who were provided with really great footage." Unfortunately, despite getting a fortuitous tip-off via Twitter about a commencing supernova in an easily observable galaxy, the high-altitude Hawaiian weather wasn't playing ball. "We were sitting there, very frustrated as the telescope had been shut down just before I was able to get a spectrum -- we were literally pointing directly at the object and the operator wanted to keep us open but said 'Look folks, the humidity is 100 percent and fog is beginning to form.' Of course I couldn't force the operator to [keep the dome open]!" BIG PIC: Keck's Laser Light Show Dazzles Hawaiian Skies

astronomy