This video shows a unique time-lapse of the supernova in galaxy NGC 2525. The supernova is captured by Hubble in exquisite detail within this galaxy in the lower left portion of the frame. It appears as a very bright star located on the outer edge of one of its beautiful swirling spiral arms. This new and unique time-lapse of Hubble images shows the once bright supernova initially outshining the brightest stars in the galaxy, before fading into obscurity during the telescope’s observations. This time-lapse consists of observations taken over the course of one year, from February 2018 to February 2019.
I need to do some more research, as I have been studying supernova and candidates that could occur in the Milky Way. I had created the Supernova Remnant Challenge. I thought of a new observing program to supplement that one. It is the Potential Supernova Observing Program. These are stars, massive or white dwarfs with companions that have the protentional to go Supernova at some point. Here is the list I made and you can find it as a shared Google Sheet at this LINK.
Now it is all relative, for most we are talking millions of years down the road. I did not sort this by season either. Most of the stars or systems (I did not list them as A and B or A,B,C etc.) are observable based on the magnitude, and most could be done from a highly light polluted area. I am going to include a few on each of my dark site observing trips and just see what can be seen.
An unrealistic item on my bucket list would be to observe a supernova occurring within our Milky Way, both naked eye and through the telescope. I believe that is highly unlikely because my life span is nearing its end, and even if the star, say Betelgeuse has already gone supernova, it hasn't happen from my perspective on earth as the light hasn't reached earth yet. I guess my only hope is that some undiscovered binary system in the Milky Way, a red giant and it's white dwarf companion or two white dwarfs that merge or one feeds material off the other and reaches the point where the white dwarf's mass exceeds 1.44 solar masses, the Chandrasekhar mass limit exploding as a Type Ia Supernova. However, this only happens in a galaxy about once every five hundred years.
There is a new telescope in development, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope or Roman Space Telescope shortened, an infrared telescope that will:
The Roman Space Telescope is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. The telescope has a primary mirror that is 2.4 meters in diameter (7.9 feet), and is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope’s primary mirror. The Roman Space Telescope will have two instruments, the Wide Field Instrument, and the Coronagraph Instrument technology demonstration.
The Wide Field Instrument will have a field of view that is 100 times greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, capturing more of the sky with less observing time. As the primary instrument, the Wide Field Instrument will measure light from a billion galaxies over the course of the mission lifetime. It will perform a microlensing survey of the inner Milky Way to find ~2,600 exoplanets. The Coronagraph Instrument technology demonstration will perform high contrast imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets.
The Roman Space Telescope will have a primary mission lifetime of 5 years, with a potential 5 year extended mission.
As part of this mission the Roman Space Telescope will measure light from Type Ia supernova as explained in this video.
