News Release 05-212
Blasts from the Past
An artist's concept of a "light echo" from a supernova as seen from Earth
December 21, 2005
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An international team of astronomers working at the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile has found visible echoes of three ancient supernovae, according to a report in the Dec. 22 issue of the journal Nature.
The three exploding stars flashed into short-lived brilliance several centuries ago in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy in Earth's southern skies. The echoes, which take the form of very faint arcs of light centered on the original explosions, represent light that has propagated outward and been reflected back toward Earth by clouds of interstellar gas. They were discovered when the astronomers looked for subtle differences between images of the Large Magellanic Cloud taken years apart.
The astronomers hope to extend this technique to other supernovae, including such famous examples as the one Johannes Kepler observed some 400 years ago. A detailed study of the light echoes could tell the scientists a great deal about each star's death throes and about the nature of the surrounding interstellar medium.
Part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, CTIO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. (AURA), under a cooperative agreement with NSF.
For more information, see the National Optical Astronomy Observatory news release.
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Geometry of a light echo
Credit and Larger Version
Media Contacts
M. Mitchell Waldrop, NSF, (703) 292-7752, email: mwaldrop@nsf.gov
Douglas Isbell, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, (520) 318-8230, email: disbell@noao.edu
Related Websites
CTIO site: http://www.ctio.noao.edu/
NOAO news release: http://www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr05/pr0512.html
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