Hubble captures an irregular galaxy shaped by an epic supernova explosion

By Georgina Torbet August 17, 2020

A new image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy NGC 2442, which has a distinctive and unusual shape formed when it was the site of a massive supernova explosion.

Identified by astronomers in March 2015, the supernova SN2015F resulted from the explosion of a white dwarf star, which was part of a binary system, in which two stars orbit around the same point. As the white dwarf reached the end of its life, it pulled matter away from its companion star, and eventually pulled in so much matter that it triggered an absolutely enormous supernova.

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spectacular galaxy NGC 2442. — This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spectacular galaxy NGC 2442. ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Smartt et al.

“SN2015F was spotted in March 2015 in the galaxy named NGC 2442, nicknamed the Meathook Galaxy owing to its extremely asymmetrical and irregular shape,” the Hubble scientists said in a statement sharing the new image. “The supernova shone brightly for quite some time and was easily visible from Earth through even a small telescope until later that summer. ”

Recommended Videos

A Type Ia supernova like SN2015F happens when a star, like the white dwarf in NGC 2442, is part of a binary system along with another star that orbits relatively close to the white dwarf. The white dwarf siphons material in the form of gas off its companion with the force of gravity, sucking up this extra matter and incorporating it into its own mass. As it sucks up more and more gas, the white dwarf experiences more and more pressure and is compressed by the forces of gravity.

Eventually, this accumulation of matter and increasing compression reaches a critical mass and sets off a chain reaction. Nuclear fusion of carbon and oxygen happens in a runaway manner and very quickly releases a tremendous amount of energy, sending an enormous shock wave hurtling through space in all directions.

Supernovae can leave behind a huge cloud of dust and gas, called a supernova remnant, and either a neutron star or, if the original star was large enough at about five times the mass of our sun, it may instead leave behind a black hole where the star once was.

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Space

Hubble catches a baby star pulsating in a triple star system

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures a triple-star star system.

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a triple-star star system. NASA, ESA, G. Duchene (Universite de Grenoble I); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

A gorgeous new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a triple star system, where three stars are working in tandem to create a reflection nebula. The trio of stars are located 550 light-years away, and include one particular star, HP Tau, that is like a younger version of our sun and will eventually grow up to be a similar hydrogen-fueled star in millions of years' time.

Space

Celebrate Hubble’s 34th birthday with this gorgeous nebula image

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s legendary Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The name 'Little Dumbbell' comes from its shape that is a two-lobed structure of colorful, mottled, glowing gases resembling a balloon that’s been pinched around a middle waist. Like an inflating balloon, the lobes are expanding into space from a dying star seen as a white dot in the center. Blistering ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.

Tomorrow, April 24, marks the 34th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. For more than three decades, this venerable old telescope has been peering out into space, observing stars, galaxies, and nebulae to understand more about the universe we live in. To celebrate this birthday, Hubble scientists have shared a new image showing the striking Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, which is located 3,400 light-years away.

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s legendary Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. NASA, ESA, STScI

Space

Hubble discovers over 1,000 new asteroids thanks to photobombing

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks like someone took a white marking pen to it. In reality it is a combination of time exposures of a foreground asteroid moving through Hubble’s field of view, photobombing the observation of the galaxy. Several exposures of the galaxy were taken, which is evidenced by the dashed pattern.

The Hubble Space Telescope is most famous for taking images of far-off galaxies, but it is also useful for studying objects right here in our own solar system. Recently, researchers have gotten creative and found a way to use Hubble data to detect previously unknown asteroids that are mostly located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The researchers discovered an incredible 1,031 new asteroids, many of them small and difficult to detect with several hundred of them less than a kilometer in size. To identify the asteroids, the researchers combed through a total of 37,000 Hubble images taken over a 19-year time period, identifying the tell-tale trail of asteroids zipping past Hubble's camera.