NASA has released a beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the spiral galaxy LEDA 22057.
This Hubble image shows LEDA 22057, a spiral galaxy some 650 million light-years away in the constellation of Gemini. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R.J. Foley, UC Santa Cruz.
LEDA 22057 is located about 650 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Gemini.
Also known as AGC 170923, MaNGA 11743-12703 or 2MASX J07524264+1450263, the galaxy is the site of a supernova explosion.
“This particular supernova, named SN 2024pi, was discovered by an automated survey in January 2024,” members of the Hubble team said in a statement.
“The survey covers the entire northern half of the night sky every two days and has catalogued more than 10,000 supernovae.”
The new image of LEDA 22057 is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WCF3) in the infrared part of the spectrum.
“SN 2024pi is visible in this image,” the astronomers said.
“Located just down and to the right of the galactic nucleus, the pale blue dot of SN 2024pi stands out against the galaxy’s ghostly spiral arms.”
“This image was taken about a month and a half after the supernova was discovered, so the supernova is seen here many times fainter than its maximum brilliance.”
According to the researchers, the SN 2024pi supernova belongs to a Type Ia.
“This type of supernova requires a remarkable object called a white dwarf, the crystallized core of a star with a mass less than about eight times the mass of the Sun,” they said.
“When a star of this size uses up the supply of hydrogen in its core, it balloons into a red giant, becoming cool, puffy and luminous.”
“Over time, pulsations and stellar winds cause the star to shed its outer layers, leaving behind a white dwarf and a colorful planetary nebula.”
“White dwarfs can have surface temperatures higher than 100,000 degrees and are extremely dense, packing roughly the mass of the Sun into a sphere the size of Earth.”
“While nearly all of the stars in the Milky Way will one day evolve into white dwarfs — this is the fate that awaits the Sun some five billion years in the future — not all of them will explode as Type Ia supernovae.”
“For that to happen, the white dwarf must be a member of a binary star system.”
“When a white dwarf syphons material from a stellar partner, the white dwarf can become too massive to support itself.”
“The resulting burst of runaway nuclear fusion destroys the white dwarf in a supernova explosion that can be seen many galaxies away.”
