Earth Visible with binoculars

The closest supernova to Earth in 30 years will be visible with binoculars

An international team of astronomers has detected hours after the explosion, a supernova that increasing brightness can be seen even with binoculars from here to a week because of their "closeness" to Earth, "only" 21 million years light.

The discovery of a supernova occur shortly after and as close to the Earth is uncommon , so the phenomenon is being studied by all the telescopes, including Hubble, according to a statement issued Friday by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the U.S. States that detected the explosion.

The supernova, called PTF 11kly, was discovered this week in the constellation Ursa Major and is of type Ia, the most powerful of all , which can emit a brightness several times greater than the host galaxy. Through the study of these stellar explosions, scientists measure the cosmic expansion.

It will take "a dark sky and a good pair of binoculars," "caught shortly after the supernova explosion. 11kly PTF is brightening every minute and it's 20 times brighter than yesterday , "said Peter Nugent, the first scientist Berkeley Lab to see the phenomenon. "This is the supernova of a generation," said Joshua Bloom, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley.

Supernovae occur when stars with a mass equivalent to at least ten of our suns reach the end of his life and explode , producing flashes of light are rapidly increasing in intensity and can last from several weeks to several months.

A "just" 21 million light years from Earth, a relatively small distance in terms of astronomy, PTF 11kly gaining brightness and brighter than any supernova of its kind in the past 30 years , so you can be admired by astronomy fans next week.

"The best time to see the explosion of the star will be just after sunset in the northern hemisphere , within about a week, "said astronomer Mark Sullivan, the British University of Oxford. It will require "a dark sky and a good pair of binoculars, even a small telescope will be even better , "added the scientist.

This supernova, which scientists say will become one of the most studied in history, could be seen through the Palomar Transient Factory survey, which uses a wide-field camera to track new objects in the sky each day. Just three hours after being seen, the telescopes in the Canary Islands had captured the spectrum of the stellar explosion, which allows identification and classification, it said.

Never before had measured so close to the time of the explosion of a supernova spectrum, which provides valuable information about the star's outer layers and clues about why the outbreak.

"We're finding new clues to solve the mystery of the origin of these supernovae perplexing for 70 years. Despite having seen thousands of supernovae have never seen anything like it before , "said scientist Andrew Howell of the University of California Santa Barbara.